By Ola Kay
Spokesman of the Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, has refuted a report that Dangote Petroleum Refinery could shut its petrol unit for two to three months, describing the claim as “fake.”
Reuters,a news agency had reported that the petrol unit at the 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery may be shut for two to three months for repairs, quoting industry monitor IIR Energy.
The report alleged that the unit had been shut since around August 29 after catalyst leaks.
The report also claimed that the refinery plans to attempt to restart the 204,000 bpd Residue Fluidised Catalytic Cracking Unit on September 20, but major repairs and equipment replacement could keep the unit shut for months.
Chiejina refuted the claims, describing them as fake news and expressed concern over the use of ‘could’ if the news agency was sure of the planned shutdown.
“Fake news. Why ‘could’ if they are sure?,” quoting the Punch reported reaction of the Group’s spokesman.
Reuters had reported that Dangote’s RFCCU was expected to be shut for at least two weeks.
The refinery commenced processing crude in January 2024, and has since brought down the Europe-to-West petrol export trade significantly. The European Union and the United Kingdom’s gasoline exports to Nigeria fell from an average of about 200,000 bpd in 2024 to about 120,000 bpd in the first half of this year, according to Kpler data.
The Dangote refinery is planning a ramp-up to 700,000 bpd by December 2025.
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