Dangote Refinery Expands to Another Country, Builds Million Barrel Fuel Storage
- The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has begun building extensive fuel storage facilities in Namibia with a capacity of 1.6 million barrels
- The $20 billion refinery, which began operations last year, aims to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imported fuel and expand its exports
- The refinery is also increasing its storage capacity by constructing eight more tanks, boosting crude storage by 41.67% to 3.4 billion liters
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
Plans to build extensive fuel storage facilities in Namibia, with a minimum capacity of 1.6 million barrels of petrol and diesel, have been started by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
Source: Getty Images
The refinery has begun these plans as part of its larger goal to provide refined petroleum products to key Southern African markets, thereby increasing its presence outside Nigeria.
This move highlights the refinery's ambition to control the fuel supply across Africa and beyond, potentially altering regional energy trade patterns and improving southern African countries' access to refined goods.
Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, spent $20 billion to build the refinery, which has a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. The refinery began operations last year and has been gradually increasing production while also seeking new markets.
The storage tanks will be used to deliver gasoline and diesel to Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, according to sources briefed on the development.
Additionally, reports suggest that Dangote is also considering supplying fuel to the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. A request for comment from a Dangote representative went unanswered.
The cost of the project was not immediately disclosed, but the second source mentioned that construction of the storage tanks would begin soon at Walvis Bay, a port city.
The storage tanks will be located inside the Walvis Bay harbor, as confirmed by an officer from the Namibia Ports Authority who verified the designs. According to another source, the refinery sold gasoline outside West Africa for the first time last month, when a Dangote gasoline shipment was bound for Asia.
When operating at full capacity, the Dangote refinery is expected to generate enough refined products to meet Nigeria’s demand, where processed fuel imports have significantly decreased, with the surplus being exported.
Source: UGC
To ensure sufficient storage for imported crude oil, the refinery started constructing eight additional tanks earlier this year.
The refinery is boosting its storage capacity by 6.29 million barrels, or one billion liters, according to an Africa study. This increase will raise the refinery's crude storage capacity by 41.67% to 3.4 billion liters with the construction of the eight new tanks.
Speaking on the potentials of the billion dollar refinery, Samuel Oyekanmi, a research and insight associate with Norrenberger Financial Group said,
"The full implementation of Dangote Refinery is a potential growth propeller, however it will take time before we start seeing the full impact on the economy."
Dangote announces new petrol price
Legit.ng reported that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has decided to increase its ex-depot petrol price to N880 per litre.
The new price is a N55 increase when compared to the previous price of N828 quoted by the refinery.
Petroleumprice.ng, a platform that tracks daily product prices, as well as a pro forma invoice confirmed the latest change. As the sole domestic PMS supplier with such scale, Dangote sets the tone for the downstream market.
Source: Legit.ng
