The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has given Dangote Refinery a thumb up, and said it was interested in buying refined petroleum products from Dangote Oil Refinery,when it comes on stream.
MOMAN, which said in a statement that it recently toured the 650,000 barrels-per-day single train refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, expressed belief that the refinery would help remove bottlenecks associated with importation of petroleum products.
The association made this know during a virtual meeting with the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and group executive director, Devakumar Edwin.
The $19.5 billion oil refinery project is scheduled for mechanical completion this year with commissioning by January 2022.
The chairman of the association, Tunji Oyebanji said: “It is our desire to see our members buy refined products from Dangote Refinery when it comes on stream. We are open to discuss commercial terms with the management of Dangote Oil Refinery regarding lifting of refined products.
“The impact it will have on the market chain will be changed from a situation whereby a marketer will have to wait for four to five months through imports lead time before getting products.
“The turn-around time is going to be much faster. It will be more efficient. Getting products from Dangote Refinery will also give us the possibility of getting the product by vessels or by trucking. It is going to have a positive impact on the way we do business in the downstream sector.
“We believe Dangote Refinery is going to result in delivering decent margins for our members; enough margins for us to begin to rebuild or/upgrade the assets in the industry”.
Tunji Oyebanji, who is also the managing director /chief executive officer of 11plc, expressed hope that the coming on stream of Dangote Refinery would facilitate the deregulation of the downstream oil sector.
Chief Operations Officer, Dangote Oil Refining Company, Giuseppe Surace told the marketers that the refinery has been designed to process a variety of light and medium grades of crude, including petrol and diesel as well as jet fuel and polypropylene.
He said the refinery is billed to produce up to 50 million litres of petrol and 15 million litres of diesel a day, roughly 10.4 million tonnes of the product, 4.6 million tonnes of diesel, and 4 million tonnes of jet fuel yearly, in addition to having a fertiliser plant, which would utilise the refinery by-products as raw materials.
The members who visited the refinery included the Managing Director 11 Plc/ Chairman MOMAN, Adetunji Oyebanji; Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Clement Isong; Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Imrane Barry; Managing Director, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, Marco Storari; Managing Director, ARDOVA Plc, Olumide Adeosun; Managing Director, NNPC Retail Limited, Elizabeth Aliyuda; and 22 others.