The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Africa’s largest, is set to reach its full production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) within the next 30 days.
Edwin Devakumar, the vice president of the refinery, revealed this on Monday in an interview with Reuters.
He stated that the facility began refining crude into diesel, naphtha, and jet fuel in January last year, with petrol production commencing in September.
“The refinery is currently running at 85 percent capacity, and we can reach 100 percent in 30 days,” Devakumar said.
Read also: Dangote refinery attains peak PMS production of 33m litres a day
Once fully operational, it aims to compete with European refiners but has faced challenges securing adequate crude supplies locally.
Due to insufficient local crude availability, the refinery resorted to imports last year despite an agreement with the Nigerian government to purchase crude in naira.
To ensure steady operations, it has requested 550,000 bpd from Nigerian oil producers for the first half of this year, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
NNPC also warned that it will block export permits for producers failing to meet their domestic supply obligations.
Meanwhile, the refinery is expanding its market reach.
Read also: Retailers can’t yet reduce petrol price despite Dangote refinery cut PETROAN
Dangote recently told a group of visiting Nigerian professionals that two cargoes of jet fuel had been shipped to Saudi Aramco as part of its growth strategy.
“We are looking at all the markets right now,” Devakumar said.
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