The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is constructing eight additional tanks to boost its storage capacity for imported crude oil.
According to Africa Report, the refinery aims to expand its storage by 6.29 million barrels, equal to 1 billion litres.
The $20 billion refinery is preparing to stockpile imported crude due to the unreliability of local supplies. Refinery officials noted that limited crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is increasing reliance on imports.
The construction of eight additional tanks will increase crude storage capacity at the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery by 41.67%, bringing the total capacity to 3.4 billion litres.
“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, said.
“So we have started building eight additional crude tanks to hold a billion litres, over and above our original storage capacity. Four of them are nearing completion,” Edwin added.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently operates 20 crude storage tanks, each with a capacity of 120 million litres, amounting to a total of 2.4 billion litres. Additionally, its refined product tanks can store up to 2.34 billion litres.
However, Edwin noted that crude oil supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to the refinery remains “very low.” Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria relied heavily on fuel imports until the Dangote refinery began operations last year.
Nigeria continues to grapple with challenges such as underinvestment and frequent production disruptions caused by theft and pipeline vandalism. These issues have repeatedly caused the nation to lose its position as Africa’s top oil producer in recent years.
The NNPC’s Warri and Port Harcourt refineries have resumed operations, further stretching the company’s obligation to supply crude oil beyond its commitments to the Dangote Refinery and the portion allocated for loan servicing.
