Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery Set to Receive First Cargo of Crude

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria is set to receive its first cargo of crude this Friday. The crude oil cargo of 1 million barrels will be supplied by Shell International Trading and Shipping Company (STASCO). This will lead to commencement of refining operations at the refinery facility, whose commissioning has been delayed by several years now.

According to a statement issued by Dangote Group, the 1 million barrels of Agbami crude from Shell is the first of 6 million barrels it plans to purchase so as to enable the initial run of the refinery. The cargo is scheduled to arrive at the refinery later on Friday.

The next four cargoes of 1 million barrels each will be supplied by the state-run oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited within two to three weeks. The final cargo will be supplied later by ExxonMobil. The focus of the company is to ramp up the refinery to its full capacity over the coming months, the statement said.

Nigeria had commissioned the Dangote Refinery in May this year. The refinery hopes to transform the country into a net exporter of petroleum products and serve as a solution to the country’s fuel shortage. The petrochemical complex was built at an investment of around $19 billion.