Challenges encountered in importing steel and other equipment for the construction of the 650, 000 barrels per day (bpd) Dangote crude oil refinery has posed a barrier to its completion before the initially set date.
However, refining operation which was expected to begin at the facility early 2020 has been shifted, implying that it may start by early 2021 due to the new development.
This according to the Group Executive Director, Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, who stated this in an interview with Reuters.
He disclosed that the firm could start using the refinery’s tank farms as a depot to warm up operations despite the delays at the congested Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
“We will be able to complete the refinery project by the end of next year – mechanical completion,” Edwin said.
He said the crude unit for the refinery, which set sail from China last month, would arrive by the end of October.
According to him, “the tanks will be connected to five single point mooring buoys” (SPMs), which will allow the refinery complex to pump crude straight into tanks from large ships at sea and pump products back out onto boats of any size.”
The GMD noted that the team was in talks with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), two other international oil companies and two large oil traders, who were all interested in supplying crude and buying products.
