Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has clarified that it does not import finished petroleum products into Nigeria.
David Bird, Managing Director and CEO of the Dangote Refinery, made the statement on Wednesday, February 4, stressing that the facility only brings in intermediate feedstocks, which are further refined locally.
Bird explained, “I can guarantee you, we are not importing finished product. I am a refinery. I have no interest in importing finished product, but I will be importing intermediate feedstocks and components.”
He listed imported materials such as cracked gasoline, light cycle oil, high-sulphur reformate, and other globally traded by-products, all of which are processed through Dangote’s hydrocrackers, residue fluid catalytic cracking units, and alkylation units to produce finished fuels.
Bird emphasised that the refinery operates differently from pipeline-based refineries abroad.
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“So what you might see in, say, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or UAE where the refinery sits on the end of a pipeline and it just processes that crude. Dangote is not like that. Dangote is a merchant refinery,” he said.
He added, “What do I mean by a merchant refinery? A merchant refinery has all of its feedstocks coming in, predominantly by sea, of course. And that means it can process a wide variety of crude and feedstocks. So it is not just about a pure distillation of crude oil.”
Bird also highlighted the refinery’s compliance with international standards and its contribution to public health.
“But I’m incredibly proud for the public health benefits that come from Nigeria now enjoying the latest standard of fuel efficiency.
“Fuels production as a result of having the youngest, most modern, most instrumented, most automated, most energy efficient, most data-rich refinery in the world on its doorstep. And that’s our commitment to keep producing these on-spec fuels for Nigeria,” he said.
He concluded by dismissing doubts about the refinery’s operations: “And frankly, I find it quite disingenuous why anyone is suspecting Dangote refinery is not making on-spec fuels, because otherwise, how else would we be able to export? It’s as simple as that.”