Nigeria’s Dangote Oil Refinery has made significant changes to its maintenance schedule for its gasoline-producing unit. Originally planning a 30-day maintenance shutdown in June for its Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit, the refinery has now cancelled this maintenance period. The necessary work on the unit was completed during an unplanned shutdown from April 7 to May 11, as reported by industry tracker IIR.
Despite reports of unplanned repairs, the refinery has clarified that the unit is not currently undergoing any maintenance work. During the unplanned outage, the refinery increased its exports of residual products such as straight run fuel oil, while shipments of finished fuels like jet fuel and gasoil declined, according to data from shipping analytics firm Kpler.
The Dangote refinery, built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. It began producing diesel, naphtha, and jet fuel in January last year, with petrol production starting in September. The refinery aims to compete with European suppliers, but has faced challenges in securing enough crude locally.
OPEC has noted that Dangote’s oil operations in Nigeria are already impacting the European oil market. Economists predict that the Dangote refinery could potentially disrupt the $17 billion annual gasoline trade from Europe to Africa. With its ambitious production goals and strategic positioning, the Dangote Oil Refinery is set to make a significant impact on the global oil industry.
