By Isaac Akerele
Africa’s largest oil refinery, the recently completed Dangote facility, has issued its first fuel export tenders, according to trading sources.
The $20 billion refinery, owned by continent’s wealthiest man Aliko Dangote, has capacity to process 650,000 barrels per day. Located on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria, it aims to reduce expensive fuel imports and position Nigeria as a net exporter to West Africa.
The first is a tender to export 65,000 metric tons of low-sulfur straight run fuel oil which, according to Reuters, is awarded to commodity trader Trafigura for loading by February’s ending
According to reports, the second 60,000 ton tender is for naphtha, closing on February 15th.
Experts describe the exported oil products as typical early yields from passing light crude through the refinery’s initial crude distillation unit, prior to the activation of upgrading units over several months.
Dangote started purchasing crude last December, mainly from state-owned NNPC Ltd. It is also due to receive 2 million barrels of U.S. WTI Midland crude in early March.
