- The test run of the Dangote Refinery comes after it received the sixth 1 million oil barrels from Agbami Field.
- NUPRC mandated oil-producing companies to send 350,000 barrels of oil to Dangote refinery daily in the first half of 2024.
A Dangote Group official who spoke to Reuters said the Dangote refinery will commence test runs this week. This development comes after the refinery received its sixth 1 million barrel of crude cargo on Monday. In a statement, a spokesperson for Dangote mentioned that the facility received another 1 million barrels of oil from the Agbami field in the Niger Delta. This brings the total amount of crude delivered to the plant to 6 million barrels since the first cargo arrived in December.
A senior company executive said the next step involves starting the crude distillation unit, a crucial refinery component. This process will likely commence during the upcoming week. He said, “Subsequently, we will continuously buy crude and start commissioning the other departments. Saleable products will start coming from the first week itself. But, of course, the volume will be limited, and the variety of saleable products will also be limited. It will start building up as each major department gets commissioned.”
The 650,000-barrel Dangote refinery will end the importation of petroleum products in Nigeria. In addition, it will meet other countries’ energy needs across the West African sub-region. Boggled by delays and missed deadlines even after commissioning in May, the Dangote refinery received its first crude shipment in December. Since then, it has received around 5 million barrels of oil as part of preparation towards a test run. Recall that the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has mandated oil-producing companies to send 350,000 barrels of oil to the Dangote refinery daily in the first half of 2024. This aligns with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) signed in 2021.