Dangote: We’re not importing finished products

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has dismissed reports that the $20 billion plant imports finished products into the country.

Speaking on Wednesday, David Bird, MD/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Dangote Refinery, said the facility only imports by-products like cracked gasoline which are further refined locally into finished products.

According to him, imported byproducts include cracked gasoline, light cycle oil, high-sulphur reformate and other intermediate materials which are globally traded commodities.

These, he said, are processed through Dangote’s hydrocrackers, residue fluid catalytic cracking units and alkylation units to produce finished products.

“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,” Bird said.

The CEO said Dangote Refinery does not sit on the end of a pipeline just processing the country’s crude oil.

“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.

“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 further explained that the feedstocks are being processed in international standards finished products at the Dangote Refinery.

“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.

“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.”

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