Dangote oil refinery plans to import at least five million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in July, according to three trading sources familiar with the matter.
- The Dangote Refinery plans to import 5 million barrels of U.S. WTI crude oil in July 2023.
- The refinery has secured its July deliveries through tenders awarded to Vitol, Socar, and Glencore.
- The refinery’s challenges include securing sufficient local crude supplies, supplemented by international imports.
Dangote oil refinery plans to import at least five million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in July, according to three trading sources familiar with the matter.
The massive refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, is set to import around 161,000 barrels per day (bpd) of WTI crude in July after awarding tenders in recent days, the sources said. This comes after a record 300,000 bpd was booked in its June tenders.
Commodity trader Vitol secured two million barrels for July delivery in the latest Dangote tender, Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar provided another two million barrels, and miner and trader Glencore sold the remaining one million barrels, Reuters reported.
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The sellers of the nine million barrels Dangote planned to import for June, according to an earlier tender, were not confirmed, as tender details are not publicly disclosed.
Africa’s largest refinery, the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery, has been sourcing crude oil from international suppliers to supplement its domestic deliveries as it continues to scale up operations.
Dangote’s previous record for U.S. crude imports was 173,000 bpd in April, according to data from global shipping analytics firm Kpler.
Dangote’s struggle with crude
Despite its massive capacity, making it larger than Europe’s ten biggest refineries, Dangote Refinery has struggled to secure adequate crude supplies locally.
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To address this, founder Aliko Dangote announced that the company would source crude from other African-producing nations to maintain production levels.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) have had disagreements, particularly regarding the naira for crude deal. However, in March, NNPC confirmed ongoing negotiations for a new naira-for-crude deal with Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Dangote’s operations have effectively ended Nigeria’s status as Africa’s biggest fuel importer. That title now belongs to South Africa, where operational fuel-making capacity has declined.
