The Dangote Refinery can continue operations and thrive even without local support, according to Devakumar Edwin, Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited. Speaking on a Brekete Family live show, Edwin stressed that the refinery would export most of its products if local oil traders, including NNPC Limited, do not patronize them.
Edwin confirmed that the refinery has already started producing petrol and will export it if the local market does not buy the products. He mentioned that the refinery is currently exporting diesel, kerosene, and aviation fuel due to insufficient local demand.
Nigeria is facing a severe petrol shortage, with NNPC admitting that it owes suppliers over $6 billion. The refinery, according to Edwin, is still dealing with challenges in sourcing domestic crude oil and has had to import most of its needs. “We are not getting enough crude allocation, and the crude is still being exported. We are forced to import crude from outside,” he explained.
To tackle this issue, the refinery is constructing four large crude tanks, each with a capacity of 120 million liters, to store imported crude. Edwin highlighted the initial goal of refining local crude to add value and supply the domestic market, but current challenges have turned this plan upside down.
The official said; “If you see the refinery, we are building four new crude tanks, each of the tanks has 120 million litres capacity. We have to construct the tanks because we are not getting the local crude. We import from overseas, which means we should have enough stocks due to the shipping time.
“The philosophy (initially) is to take the crude, and instead of exporting the crude, refine it, add value; export the finished products, and supply the finished products locally. But unfortunately for us, we started facing challenges with the crude supply.
“What is happening today? We are struggling to get the crude. We are now importing the crude from the US, we are importing from Brazil, and from other parts of the world. So, the whole philosophy has gone upside down. After all these decades, we are exporting crude, importing products”, he added.
“Go and see our product gantry, we can load 86 tankers at any given time. We can load 2,900 tankers of petroleum products every day, but we are not even loading five per cent, because those who are interested in the trading business, feel that probably this local production is going to affect their established interest, so they are not allowing our products to be sold locally.
“They are not coming to lift our products. So, what are we doing? We are exporting the products”, he disclosed.
