Dangote refinery to start operation in 2018

Dangote Group said its 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery currently under construction in Lagos would come on stream by the end of 2018.

The group’s Executive Director, Stakeholders’ Relations/Corporate Communications, Alhaji Ahmed Mansur , announced this during a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said this would ultimately end fuel importation.

He said the refinery’s daily production capacity would be 150 per cent of the current total demand of petroleum products in the country, saying that the excess would be exported to other countries.

Mansur said a 1.3 million metric tonnes per annum petrochemical plant was also under construction at the refinery site in Lekki area of Lagos .

In addition , he said that a fertiliser company with capacity to produce 2.8 million metric tonnes of assorted fertilisers was also being added to help the country to achieve food security.

Mansur disclosed that the company had also diversified into gas business as it had started constructing a gas pipeline from the South East to Lagos.

He said that the gas plant, when completed, would have the capacity to produce three million standard cubic metres of gas per annum.

The executive director said the project would help the country to record appreciable improvement in power and manufacturing sectors.

According to him, the company’s huge investment in the oil and gas sector will impact positively in the economy, especially in the areas of employment and preservation of foreign exchange .

 

(NAN)

Three refineries produced 44m litres of petrol in July

Despite the efforts to increase local refining capacity to conserve foreign exchange Nigeria’s three refineries could only produce 43,743,273 million litres of petrol in July.
This means, the country’s forex request for imports of petroleum products, which currently stands at 35 percent will further increase in the coming months, unless something drastic was done about the state of the refineries
The refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, has a combined daily refining capacity of 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day
The latest production statistics contained in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), monthly report for July 2016, released at the weekend show that the approximatly only 44 million litres of petrol was produced in July is was far below the 211,562,865 million litres of petrol produced by the three refineries in June this year and slightly above the country’s daily consumption figure of 40 million litres.
The negative trend recorded for petrol production amongst the three refineries was equally replicated for kerosene with July production standing at 22,953,014 as against 119,582,848 produced in June this year.
The petroleum products-petrol and kerosene production by the domestic refineries in July 2016 amounted to 66.70 million litres compared to 331.15 million litres in June 2016. But, the NNPC said the the adverse performance was due to crude pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region coupled with on-going refineries revamp; it however, adding that the three refineries continued to operate at minimal capacity.
On capacity utilization of the refineries, NNPC disclosed that total crude processed by the three local refineries for the month of July 2016 was 126,756 metric tones(MT),translating to   929,275 barrels and intermediate of 40,640 metric tones about 297,972 barrels which translates to a combined yield efficiency of 77.82 percent compared to 225,770 metric tones of crude processed in June 2016 with a combined yield efficiency of 80.39 percent.
The report stated further that the three refineries produced  139,284 metric tones of finished petroleum products for the month of July 2016, out of 126,756 metric tones of crude processed and intermediate of 40,640 metric tones at a combined capacity utilization of 6.74 percent compared to 12.40 percent combined capacity utilization achieved in the month of June 2016.
It noted that the nation’s crude oil grades, including Bonny Light, Forcados, Brass and Qua Iboe, had been under periods of force majeure, which had negatively impacted on the targeted oil production of 2.2 million bpd in the 2016 national budget.
“The activities of pipeline vandals and oil thieves are taking a heavy toll on operations of the oil and gas industry, with over 500,000bopd lost as of May 2016. In June 2016, there was additional shut-in of about 50,000bopd as a result of sabotage/attack on the delivery pipelines to the Escravos Terminal.
“At the Forcados Terminal, about 300,000bopd remained shut-in and cargoes were deferred until repairs are completed. The force majeure declared on May 10, 2016 for repair works on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line and the resultant shut-in of about 275,000bopd subsists.”