The Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki is set to import additional crude oil as local supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) proves insufficient for its operations. The refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has ramped up production to 500,000bpd, aiming for 650,000bpd by June.
NNPC is struggling to supply enough crude for the refinery’s needs, as its allocated 450,000bpd for local consumption is not sufficient. As a result, the refinery will seek crude from international sources to meet its growing demand.
The Naira-for-crude deal initiated by President Bola Tinubu remains in place, but experts note that with local refining capacity expanding, including new plants like Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, the amount of crude available from NNPC must increase.
As part of this, Dangote is building eight additional crude storage tanks to handle more imports, expanding storage capacity by 41.67% to 3.4 billion litres. The refinery’s reliance on imported crude is expected to grow in the near term due to unreliable local supply.
