Nigeria's Dangote Delays Lekki Refinery Trial and Startup to April

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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Industrial Info has learned that Dangote Industries Limited (Lagos, Nigeria) has further delayed the trial run and startup of its 650,000-barrel-per-day Lekki Refinery's lone crude unit in Nigeria.

A shortage of crude oil halted the refinery's January 12 trial run. Dangote now expects to restart the crude unit's trial run by early April, with commercial operations planned for later that month.

Dangote's goal for the refinery is to refine locally-produced crude into gasoline, diesel and other products that currently must be imported. The idea is to reduce the economic imbalance of selling crude at wholesale while buying crude products at a higher price.

However, having enough domestic supply is threatened by a lack of investment, said Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri. He spoke at the seventh edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja. Lokpobiri warned stakeholders that unless efforts are made to increase investments and crude oil production, Nigeria's refineries may struggle to obtain enough feedstock.

Industrial Info will continue to monitor the situation for any additional updates.

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