By Ken Afor
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s recently established $19 billion Dangote oil refinery announced that the facility has received a shipment of 1 million barrels of oil from Shell International Trading and Shipping, as per Reuters.
This marks the second delivery of crude cargo this month, highlighting the refinery’s progress in gearing up for its upcoming operations.
Despite facing significant delays, the refinery is poised to transform Africa’s leading oil producer into a net exporter of fuels, a crucial objective for the OPEC member heavily dependent on imports.
The origin of the crude remains undisclosed by a representative from Dangote. However, they did confirm that the shipment will be unloaded at the refinery located outside Lagos on Wednesday.
Dangote anticipates an increase in the supply of cargoes from both the state oil firm Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and ExxonMobil this month.
Meanwhile, Nigeria being a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has oil allocation for the upcoming year at 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).
However, the government has expressed its intention to increase production to 1.8 million bpd.
This move aims to guarantee a steady supply of oil to the Dangote plant and the state-owned refineries, which are currently undergoing upgrades.
