The Dangote Refinery has resumed importing crude oil from the United States to bolster refining capacity, with a shipment of two million barrels of WTI Midland crude from Chevron Corporation scheduled for delivery in December 2024.
According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Chevron has chartered the supertanker Azure Nova to load the crude from the U.S. Gulf Coast around December 5. This marks the refinery’s first foreign crude purchase in three months, during which it focused on sourcing oil domestically.
The development raises questions about the status of the Nigerian government’s much-touted naira-for-crude arrangement with the refinery. Introduced on October 5, 2024, the deal was expected to allow the refinery to pay for crude in naira instead of dollars, potentially easing pressure on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.
Economist Kelvin Emmanuel has, however, stated that Dangote Refinery still procures crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in dollars, suggesting that the naira-for-crude initiative may have faced delays or challenges.
This latest US crude purchase may also indicate that the refinery is not receiving sufficient supply from NNPCL to meet its refining needs. With a refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the facility is crucial to Nigeria’s ambitions of reducing dependency on imported petroleum products.
The Dangote Refinery’s actions will likely reignite discussions about Nigeria’s energy policies, domestic crude supply chain reliability, and the broader impact of these challenges on the country’s economy.
