In news reports, Dangote refinery has begun negotiations with Libya to secure crude for the 650,000 barrels per day plant and will also seek Angolan oil, a senior executive, Devakumar Edwin, said at the weekend, as the company seeks to overcome problems with domestic supplies.
Since operations commenced in January, the refinery has struggled to get adequate crude supplies in Nigeria, which, although Africa’s biggest oil producer, is struggling with theft, pipeline vandalism and low investment.
Dangote has resorted to importing crude from as far as Brazil and the United States and is now looking to other African countries to source for products, Reuters reported. “We are talking to Libya about importing crude,” Dangote refinery, Edwin, told Reuters at the weekend. “We will talk to Angola as well and some other countries in Africa,” he added. He declined to give details about the talks but said international traders and oil companies were among the biggest buyers of Dangote’s gasoil, much of which was being exported. “The biggest off-takers are the two big traders Trafigura and Vitol and BP and, to some extent, even Total Energies.
But all of them are saying they are taking it offshore,” Edwin said. Traders and shipping data have shown that Dangote is increasing gasoil or diesel exports to West Africa, taking market share from European refiners. Edwin said Dangote’s oil trading arm was operational, with staff in London and Lagos, to help manage supplies and sell products.
Meanwhile, Dangote is calling off plans to invest in a new steel plant in Nigeria after the government accused him of seeking to become a monopoly with his new refinery in the West African country. “Our board has decided that we should not have the steel plant. If we do, we will be called all sorts of names,” Dangote said at a media briefing at the weekend. The billionaire had announced earlier this year that once his mega-refinery was fully operational, his next investment venture was to start construction of a 5,000-ton steel plant that will supply the product to the West African market. “Let other Nigerians also go and do it, because we are not the only Nigerians here, there are even some Nigerians with even more cash,” Dangote said. “They should bring in that money from Dubai and from other parts of the world to come and invest in our own Fatherland,” he said.
