The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Africa’s largest crude processing facility, is set to ship its first gasoline (petrol) 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 tonnes of gasoline is set to be loaded by independent oil trader Mercuria and is scheduled to be loaded on June 22. This will be the refinery’s first gasoline export outside the African continent since it began commercial fuel production, according to the source.
“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 Dangote refinery, which began operations last year, has so far exported gasoline only to the West African region. Reuters reported that this latest development is being viewed by analysts as a potential shift in the refinery’s commercial strategy, signalling growing readiness to compete on a global scale.
The 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery has been buying increasing volumes of United States 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 barrels per day, which makes it Africa’s biggest and one of the world’s largest crude processing sites.
The refinery is expected to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s demand for all refined petroleum products and will also have a surplus of each of the products for export.
Industry experts say this new export route signals growing confidence in the refinery’s operational capacity and product quality, even as the plant continues its phased ramp-up towards full production.
Commenting, a director at Horizon Engage, a political risk consultancy, Clementine Wallop, asserted that the decision to export products to Asia reflects increasing confidence in the facility’s production stability.
“This development shows the Dangote refinery’s growing global importance as a gasoline supplier, and the company’s confidence that production is now stable enough to meet Nigeria’s domestic needs,” Wallop said.
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