The much talked about $19 billion Dangote Refinery located in Lagos State on Thursday, received its first tanker of crude oil feedstock volume of about one million barrels from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
The tanker was chartered by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
An S&P Global Commodity Insights report revealed that the cargo was supposed to have landed at the 650,000 barrels per day facility yesterday.
While quoting market sources and tanker tracking data, S&P reports that fuel production at the new refinery was set to start after years of delays and deferments.
The tanker’s estimated arrival time was on Thursday, December 7 by 8 pm, heralding the commencement of crude supplies for the refinery operations.
The NNPC owns a 20% stake in the refinery as it recently entered into an agreement to supply 6 million barrels of crude oil as feedstock to the Dangote refinery in December, aiming to jumpstart operations.
Designed to process multiple crudes concurrently, the refinery aims to process three Nigerian crude grades — Escravos, Bonny Light, and Forcados.
An inside source in Dangote said the management of the refinery has set machinery in place to receive the shipment.
“Hopefully, we will barge it tomorrow (today) after going through the necessary regulatory clearance. I am sure we will finalise all the clearance today. Also, there is going to be a ceremony to receive the shipment. This is a great and exciting event and an historic moment for our country”, the source said.