The 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Refinery has supplied about 79.4 million litres of petrol by sea to the domestic market, according to a port report and ship-tracking data yesterday from Bloomberg.
The report stated that this marked a significant boost to Nigeria’s domestic fuel supply.
It added that the vessel, Sabaek, recently carried about 500,000 barrels (79.4 million litres) of petrol from the refinery to Lagos.
“This initial seaborne shipment follows about a month of the refinery distributing petrol by trucks,” it said.
Recall that the Vice President of (Oil & Gas) at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, had in a statement within the week said that the refinery will transport 75% of its local petroleum product supply via sea routes, targeting key locations like Warri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar.
According to him, the products for Calabar, Port Harcourt, Warri, Apapa, and Atlas will primarily move by sea, with road transport reserved for urgent needs, easing pressure on road infrastructure and cutting transhipment costs.
Edwin said: “We have both exporting facilities by sea and by road. 75% of the production can be evacuated through sea. In fact, now we are ramping up to make it even 100%.
“Anything going to Calabar, Port Harcourt, Warri, Apapa, Atlas can all be taken through the sea. So only what is imminently required by road can be taken.
“But I also have the facility to load 83% of my production also through road. We have just built-in flexibility but we can avoid all traffic congestion on the road by evacuating through sea and it will also bring down the cost of transshipment.”
