Yemisi Izuora
The United States has remained lead supplier of crude to sustain operations of Dangote oil refinery.
The refinery has increased volume purchase of U.S. crude WTI despite the fact that Nigeria is the biggest crude oil producer in Africa.
Nigeria has been struggling to materially boost domestic crude output, so the 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery has been sourcing more WTI crude as the facility is ramping up to capacity.
So far this year, U.S. crude has accounted for a third of the purchases of the Dangote refinery, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. A large part of the American crude feeding the refinery is the WTI Midland grade, the data showed.
The reason for the high U.S. crude intake is both technical and logistical.
WTI offers higher yields of reformate and has better gasoline blending capabilities, Randy Hurburun, senior refinery analyst at Energy Aspects, told Bloomberg.
Moreover, some of the market for WTI Crude in Asia shrank this year with the U.S.-China trade war, which made more American crude from Midland available to other markets.
At the same time, Nigerian crude availability has declined amid the Dangote refinery ramp-up, a spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg.
In June, U.S. crude will have a bigger share in Dangote’s imports compared to Nigerian crudes.
Dangote began fuel production in 2024. The refinery started up in January last year with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September.
The refinery, built by Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, has a total processing capacity of 650,000 bpd, which makes it Africa’s biggest and one of the world’s largest crude processing sites.
The refinery is expected to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s demand for all refined petroleum products and will also have a surplus of each of the products for export.