The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude processing facility, is set to ship its first gasoline cargo out of the African region with a vessel heading for Asia, a source with knowledge of the plans told Reuters on Wednesday.
The cargo of 90,000 metric tons of gasoline is set to be loaded by independent oil trader Mercuria this coming weekend, according to the source.
The Dangote refinery, which began operations last year, has so far exported gasoline only to the West African region.
“We sell our products to those who are willing to give us the highest price. It’s the buyer’s right to take the products to any destination of their choice,” a spokesperson for the Dangote refinery told Reuters.
The 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery has been buying increasing volumes of U.S. crude WTI in recent months, for both logistical and technical reasons.
WTI offers higher yields of reformate and has better gasoline blending capabilities, Randy Hurburun, senior refinery analyst at Energy Aspects, told Bloomberg earlier this month.
Dangote began fuel production in 2024. The refinery started up in January last year with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September.
The refinery, built by Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, has a total processing capacity of 650,000 bpd, which makes it Africa’s biggest and one of the world’s largest crude processing sites.
The refinery is expected to meet 100% of Nigeria’s demand for all refined petroleum products and will also have a surplus of each of the products for export.
Dangote will also export polypropylene to the global markets under an exclusive partnership with petrochemicals distributor Vinmar International.
“This collaboration marks an important step in expanding the reach of high-quality polypropylene produced at Dangote’s new refinery and petrochemical complex in Lekki, Nigeria,” Vinmar International said.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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