Dangote oil refinery is on a buying spree as it has been running at around 80 per cent since mid-March, according to industry monitoring group, IIR.
The 650,000 barrels per day is still far from achieving its full operational capabilities due to inadequate feedstocks, though it is currently targeting 85 per cent, according to Reuters, who quoted a spokesperson for the refinery as saying.
“It had been running at around 80 per cent since mid-March,” the publication cited.
To meet its target, the refinery will import at least five million barrels of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in July.
Commodity trader Vitol supplied two million barrels for July delivery in the latest Dangote tender, Azeri state-owned Socar another two million barrels, and Glencore, a mining and trading entity, sold the remaining one million barrels.
This will extended the Lagos-based refinery’s buying spree after a potential record tally for June.
It is set to import around 161,000 barrels per day of WTI in July after awarding tenders in recent days.
For the month of June, the Dangote Refinery booked a record 300,000 barrels per day volume.
Dangote’s previous record for US crude imports was 173,000 barrels per day in April, as per data from global shipping analytics firm, Kpler.
The refinery is taking that much crude from other sources because Nigeria cannot supply it adequately as the 1.5 million barrels per day it produces is tied to contracts with other oil firms.
This year alone in addition to the US, Dangote has bought crudes from Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and Brazil.
Meanwhile, the refinery is expected to operate at reduced rates through to October due to a series of issues in recent months. It is not immediately clear what this will mean for supply in the Nigerian market.