Africa’s greatest refiner turns to Center East crude as provide constraints persist in Nigeria
In keeping with S&P International Commodity Insights, Dangote Oil Refinery has secured two cargoes of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates, marking its first acquisition from a Center Japanese provider.
The acquisition represents an important exchange for the refinery, which historically resources crude from Nigeria, different African manufacturers and the USA.
The transfer comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with the contradiction of being Africa’s greatest crude oil manufacturer whilst suffering to persistently provide sufficient feedstock to its personal flagship refinery.
Even supposing the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Corporate (NNPC) provides between 13 and 15 cargoes of crude oil per thirty days to Dangote below the government’s naira for crude oil deal, the refinery has more and more grew to become to overseas providers because of inadequate availability of home crude oil and operational bottlenecks at export terminals.
The most recent acquire additionally follows better steadiness in Center East oil exports after delivery during the Strait of Hormuz normalized following the easing of tensions between the USA and Iran, making improvements to the provision of Gulf crude in world markets.
The Dangote refinery, constructed to procedure Nigeria’s mild candy crude, has continuously expanded the variety of crude grades it may refine as operations enlarge.
Along with Nigerian crude, the refinery has imported barrels from the USA, Angola, Libya, Ghana and Guyana, with the United Arab Emirates now changing into the most recent addition to its rising provider community.
Diversification displays each operational flexibility and trade technique. Center Japanese crude grades are usually heavier than Nigeria’s mild, candy blends and will fortify refinery economics when mixed with lighter barrels, giving refiners better flexibility to optimize yields of diesel, jet gasoline and different petroleum merchandise.
Manufacturing has persevered to be restricted by way of crude robbery, pipeline vandalism, getting older infrastructure and operational disruptions at key export terminals.
Dangote Refinery CEO David Fowl in the past said the ones demanding situations, announcing insufficient availability of crude oil had pressured the refinery to supply further provides from world markets.
Previous this yr, Fowl stated the refinery additionally intends to procedure extra heavy crude oil as a part of its long-term technique.
“We definitely want to increase the barrel weight. We will be in the crude blending game. So you can easily imagine that with 1.4 million barrels per day we could process 30% Middle Eastern grades in each train,” Fowl stated.
In keeping with knowledge from S&P International Commodities at Sea, about 70% of the refinery’s crude oil imports in 2025 got here from Nigeria, whilst 24% got here from the USA.
Dangote plans to double the refinery’s processing capability to at least one.4 million barrels in line with day by way of the tip of 2028, a degree that may permit it to refine about 80% of Nigeria’s fresh day-to-day crude oil manufacturing.
Subsequently, the refiner’s first acquire of Center East crude marks greater than a regimen shipment acquisition. It alerts a strategic shift against a extra different world sourcing type at a time when Africa’s greatest refiner is positioning itself to change into one of the most global’s greatest gasoline manufacturers and exporters.
The acquisition of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates highlights the rising mismatch between Nigeria’s ambition to refine extra crude locally and the rustic’s skill to persistently provide sufficient feedstock to its greatest refinery.
As Dangote ramps up its manufacturing, sourcing crude from a couple of world resources is more likely to change into an everlasting function of its procurement technique, with implications for Nigeria’s oil sector, regional gasoline markets and world crude oil business.
