Dangote Refinery Cancels June Maintenance on Petrol Producing Unit

This comes as the $20 billion structure has carried out the necessary work during an unplanned shutdown from April 7 to May 11, according to industry tracker, IIR.

Dangote Refinery had originally scheduled a 30-day maintenance shutdown in June for its gasoline-producing Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit.

The refinery has since pushed back on reports of the unit being under unplanned repair, stating that such claims are not entirely accurate.

According to data from shipping analytics firm, Kpler, during the unplanned outage, the refinery ramped up exports of residual products such as straight run fuel oil, while shipments of finished fuels like jet fuel and gasoil declined.

The 650,000 barrels per day refinery, built by Africa’s richest man, Mr Aliko Dangote, began producing diesel, naphtha, and jet fuel in January last year, followed by petrol production in September.

Dangote refinery could potentially end the long-standing gasoline trade from Europe to Africa, which is valued at $17 billion annually.

Already, the refinery has triggered a spate of changes in fuel prices locally with back to back cuts down to N825 per litre earlier this week from N835 previously sold.

The refinery, however, has not been able to operate at its optimal level due to challenges around feedstock. So far, in addition to local crude acquisition, it has bought crude from the US, Brazil, Angola, and Algeria.