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The Dangote refinery has been ranked above the 10 biggest refineries in Europe because of its capacity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The $20bn Dangote refinery can refine 650,000 barrels of petroleum products per day.
The report stated that this is over 246,00bpd capacity more than Shell’s Pernis refinery located in the Netherlands.
It added that the Pernis refinery has an installed capacity of 404,000bpd the biggest in Europe. The BP Rotterdam in the Netherlands has 380,000 capacity.
Bloomberg also said the GOI Energy ISAB refinery in Italy was built with a refining capacity of 360,000bpd.
Also, the TotalEnergies Antwerp refining facility in Belgium can refine 338,000bpd.
Others listed in the report were the Orlen Plock refinery in Poland with 327,000bpd; Shell’s Rheinland in Germany with 327,000bpd; Miro refinery in Germany has 310,000 capacity and the ExxonMobil Anterwep refinery in Belgium with 307,000 capacity.
It added that the Saras Sarroch refinery in Italy had 300,000 capacity; and the ExxonMobil Fawley in England with 270,000bpd capacity.
Describing the Dangote refinery as a ‘game changer’, the Bloomberg report said the refinery was taking advantage of cheaper US oil imports for as much as a third of its feedstock as it started up.
The refinery has been reportedly shipping products in recent weeks while readying two units to enable petrol output that will deliver a long-promised transformation of the fuel market both in Nigeria and the region, according to analysts.
“Dangote is going to influence Atlantic Basin gasoline markets this summer and for the rest of the year,” an oil expert, Alan Gelder, told Bloomberg.
The refinery is running at about 300,000 barrels a day, nearly half its nameplate capacity, according to the average estimate of analysts at WoodMac, FGE, and Citac.
The complex has started shipping jet fuel, diesel, and naphtha as it widens to a full slate of products.
Reuters recently reported that Dangote oil refinery could end a decades-long petrol trade from Europe to Africa, which is worth $17bn a year.
Reuters, quoting analysts and traders, said the Dangote refinery was heaping pressure on European refineries already at risk of closure from heightened competition, adding that the refinery would be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.
About a third of Europe’s 1.33mbpd average petrol exports in 2023 went to West Africa, a bigger chunk than any other region, with the majority of those exports ending up in Nigeria, Reuters said, quoting Kpler data.
The Dangote refinery, funded by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, was configured to produce as much as 53 million litres of petrol a day, about 300,000bpd.
The refinery has begun the sale of diesel into the Nigerian market, crashing the pump price of the product from N1,600 to N940 in less than a month.
