Victor Ezeja
Dangote Refinery has set out to build eight new storage tanks with a combined capacity of 6.3 million barrels of crude oil to store crude.
This is as the 650,000-barrel-a-day capacity refinery plans to import more crude oil in 2025 following its inability to get sufficient quantity of the product locally.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAfrica Report quoted the Vice president for oil and gas at Dangote Industries Ltd, Devakumar Edwin, saying crude supply from the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is insufficient.
“We have started building eight additional crude tanks to hold a billion litres, over and above our original storage capacity,” Edwin stated.
He told Africa Report that four of the eight additional crude storage tanks being constructed are nearing completion. He also disclosed that the refinery currently has 20 crude storage tanks with a capacity of 120 million litres each.
The $20 billion facility commenced operations in January last year. However, local supply of crude became a challenge, forcing the company to resort to importation from different parts of the world.
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The refinery is currently producing diesel, petrol, and aviation fuel among others which are supplied both locally and to the international market.
According to the report, the additional storage increases the refinery’s overall capacity to store crude by about 41 per cent.
Recently, a Reuters report revealed that Dangote Refinery retained not less than 13 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil exports as domestic supply in 2024. The report added that the refinery equally contributed significantly to crude oil import into the country, despite being a major net exporter. Nigeria imported 47,000 barrels per day of US oil in 2024.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
