Petroleum production: We have enough fuel for local consumption, export – Aliko Dangote says

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has produced enough fuel to meet the needs of Nigerians, and even for export.

He disclosed that the refinery has over 500million liters of petrol in its reservoir.

Dangote revealed this on Saturday during a tour of the $20bn Lekki-based facility with the Zambia Minister for Energy, Makozo Chikote.

The Zambian official visited the Dangote refinery in Lekki, Lagos State, seeking collaboration with the founder to help solve the country’s energy security issue.

Speaking, Dangote averred, “We can satisfy more than the local needs of Nigeria. As we speak, we have more than half a billion litres (of petrol). We have more than N600bn worth of stocks here today in the refinery. We have more than enough. The refinery is producing enough refined products, like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements.

“Now we are ramping up production. We must be at our full capacity by next month. But we have to do quite a lot of arrangements in terms of crude supply.

“In terms of quality, there is actually no refinery in Africa, even in Europe that can produce our type of quality. We want to be flexible, you know the laws keep changing.”

“Today, they will say 150 parts per million; tomorrow it’s 50 ppm, but we can produce up to zero ppm. This means we can do winter diesel, we can do Euro-5. No refinery around here can do that. When you read the news, you see that a lot of refineries now, especially in Europe, shutting down because of our own refinery. Our refinery is a percentage of the world’s production.

“Obviously, if we pump a lot, some of them will not be able to sell, that’s why in some countries, they will offer them money to just keep dumping. But then, we have to weather that storm up to the time that we will be able to be on our feet,” Dangote stated.

He maintained that the local fuel consumption in Nigeria is 40 per cent of the refinery’s total production, stating that the remaining 60 per cent is for export to other countries, especially Africa.