Nigeria’s Dangote Mega Refinery readies export of first cargoes

Billionaire Aliko Dangote’s giant new oil refinery, considered crucial for weaning Africa’s largest crude producer off imported fuel, is preparing to export its first cargoes.

“We are getting ready for exporting some products,” Devakumar Edwin, executive director at Dangote Industries Ltd., said in an text message. “But we are not sharing the details. It will start having an impact on the prices we can secure,” he said.

The 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, owned by Dangote, Africa’s richest person, started production in January.

The first cargo of 65,000 metric tons of low-sulfur straight-run fuel oil awarded to Trafigura Group is due to be loaded at the end of February, Reuters reported Wednesday, without saying where it got the information. A second tender for about 60,000 tons of naphtha closes on Feb. 15, the news agency said.

The refinery outside Lagos, the commercial capital, is targeting an initial processing rate of 350,000 barrels a day before ramping up toward its full capacity and is expected to start gasoline production by March.