DANGOTE REFINERY COMMENCES FUEL EXPORTS TO WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES

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The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started exporting refined petroleum products to neighboring West African nations, indicating to traders that the operations of the massive refinery may soon disrupt the local fuel markets.

Using information from Vortexa, Kpler, Precise Intelligence, a port report, and a ship-tracking tool, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that a tanker had transported a cargo of gasoline from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to waters off the coast of Togo, a neighboring West African nation.

A CL Jane Austen recently loaded over 300,000 barrels from Dangote and went west, according to the report.

Recall that Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, stated last month that the nation is thinking of purchasing petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to reduce the approximately $400 million it spends each month on more costly exports from Europe.

Speaking at the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos, the chairman of NPA, Ghana, claimed that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe would lower the cost of other goods and services.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

The refinery was scheduled to start exporting fuel to Namibia, Angola, and South Africa in two weeks.

Four additional African nations—Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Central Africa Republic—had also begun talks with the refinery, it was said.

According to a very reliable source who spoke directly to one of our correspondents, the management of the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was in the advanced stages of negotiations with the nations to begin lifting petroleum.

“I can confirm to you that talks are actually at the advanced stage with Ghana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while the initial discussion is coming up with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic,” the source said.

The petroleum product shipment is currently floating off the coast of Lome, which is a well-liked location for ship-to-ship transfers, according to the source.

Furthermore, the final destination of the cargo of the CL Jane Austen is uncertain.

Despite being off Togo, the region is frequently utilized for ship-to-ship transfers, so the gasoline may eventually be transported elsewhere.

“While the shipment is tiny in the context of the global gasoline market, it signals the ramp-up of Dangote’s production and the potential to export significant volumes of gasoline beyond Nigeria, which could upend regional markets.”

Last month, the refinery sent its first shipment of gasoline by sea to Lagos, a nearby commercial center.

It’s unclear if Dangote will export a significant portion of its gasoline production.

In accordance with the regulatory statute, the Federal Government last month ended the state-owned oil company’s monopoly on purchasing fuel from the plant for domestic use, but it has permitted the ongoing importation of fuel from the US and Europe.

A request for response from a Dangote representative was not answered, the newspaper said.