Dangote refinery receives first crude cargo in Nigeria

The Dangote oil refinery in Nigeria on Friday received its first cargo of 1 million barrels of crude oil from Shell International Trading and Shipping Co (STASCO), bringing the start of operations closer after years of delays.

Once fully running, the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery funded by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote will turn oil powerhouse Nigeria into a net exporter of fuels, a long-sought goal for the OPEC member that almost totally relies on imports.

Dangote Group said in a statement seen by Reuters on Friday that the cargo of 1 million barrels of crude from Agbami - a deep water field run by Chevron (CVX.N) - was the first of 6 million barrels that would enable an initial run of the refinery.

That will kick-start output of diesel, aviation fuel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, before the refinery later starts producing Premium Motor Spirit.

A Dangote Group spokesperson said the STASCO cargo arrived on a chartered vessel and was discharged into the refinery's crude oil tanks.

The next four cargoes will be supplied by state oil firm NNPC in two to three weeks and a final cargo will come from ExxonMobil (XOM.N), Dangote Group's statement said.

Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC Ltd signed an agreement in November to supply the Dangote refinery with up to six cargoes of crude starting this month. NNPC has a 20% stake in the refinery.

Despite being Africa's biggest oil producer, Nigeria experiences repeated fuel shortages. It spent $23.3 billion last year on petroleum product imports and consumes around 33 million litres of petrol a day.

"Our focus over the coming months is to ramp up the refinery to its full capacity," Dangote was quoted as saying in the statement.

Nigeria commissioned the refinery in May, after it ran years behind schedule. At a cost of $19 billion, the massive petrochemical complex is one of Nigeria's single largest investments.

By Macdonald Dzirutwe, Reuters

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Africa's biggest oil refiner launched in Nigeria

Africa's biggest oil refinery has been opened in Nigeria, where it is hoped it will alleviate chronic fuel shortages.

Nigeria is a major oil producer but most of this is sent abroad while it has to import the refined fuel used in vehicles and elsewhere.

As a result the country often faces chronic fuel shortages.

This is the problem that the $19bn (£15.2bn) refinery, owned by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, is intended to tackle.

"This is a game-changer for the Nigerian people," said President Muhammadu Buhari.

The plant, which is not yet operational, has the capacity to produce about 650,000 barrels of petroleum products a day - more than enough to supply the country's needs. It also includes a power station, deep seaport and fertiliser plant.

Nigeria's existing refineries have been completely shut down for over three years owing to oil theft, pipeline vandalism and structural neglect.

If it works as planned, the plant could make a real change to the lives of Nigerians: "Every time there is fuel scarcity, I don't open my shop because there's no light [electricity] to work and I can't buy fuel for my generator," a young hairdresser from Lagos told the BBC.

At Monday's launch, Mr Dangote outlined his hopes for the refinery: "Our first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy the nation's demand for quality products."

However, it is not clear what impact the plant will have on the price of fuel in a country where retail prices are subsidised. The government says these subsidies will soon be removed - last year they took up at least a quarter of the national budget.

Mr Dangote's plant in Lagos, which took nearly seven years to build, is said to be the world's largest single-train refinery, meaning the plant has one integrated distillery system which can produce a variety of products and petrochemicals, instead of having different units for each type of product.

It is one of the last major projects to be inaugurated by President Buhari, who steps down next week after serving two terms in office.

President Buhari will hand power to Bola Tinubu, who won disputed presidential elections in February.

Oil and gas expert Henry Adigun told the BBC that Monday's launch was "more political than technical".

Nkechi Ogbonna & Cecilia Macaulay, BBC

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Nigerian billionaire Dangote launches $2.5 billion fertilizer plant as prices soar

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote opened a 3-million-tonne fertilizer plant at a cost of $2.5 billion on Tuesday to target African and foreign markets even as the war in Ukraine has driven up prices for natural gas, a key ingredient for making urea.

Dangote said exports from the plant will go to Brazil, which relies heavily on Russia for imports of fertilizer. Shipments will also go to the United States, India and Mexico, he said at the launch.

Fertilizer prices have been rising at a time when planting usually picks up around the world, especially after Russia, the world's biggest exporter of fertilizer, invaded Ukraine last month. The war has also disrupted shipping.

The plant, commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari and located at the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos State, is designed to produce 3 million tonnes of urea per year and supply all the major markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many in Nigeria hope the Dangote plant will help alleviate chronically low crop yields in Africa's most populous country, partly due to insufficient access to fertilizer.

Agriculture accounts for 20% of Nigeria's gross domestic product, with crop production contribution the highest with the farming subsector.

However, low fertilizer production and the high cost of importing fertilisers has reined in seed production. Fertilizer consumption in Nigeria ranks below its African peers.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria consumed around 20 kg of fertiliser per hectare of arable land in 2018, compared with 73 kg in South Africa and 393 kg in China.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has barred the use of its foreign exchange for fertiliser imports as part of a raft of controls aimed at boosting domestic production.

Other producers in Nigeria include Notore (NOTORE.LG), which has the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tonnes per annum of urea, and Singapore-owned Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd, which plans to double its annual output of urea fertilizer to 2.8 million tonnes.

Reuters

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