Dangote Refinery: Vitol and Trafigura lead oil purchases

Vitol Group, Trafigura Group and BP Plc are the dominant buyers of fuels from Nigeria’s giant new Dangote oil refinery near Lagos that’s reshaping petroleum trading in Africa and Europe.

The trio have accounted for the vast majority of the plant’s shipments since flows began ratcheting up around the middle of this year, according to data from Precise Intelligence, a new oil-and-gas trading analytics firm based in Geneva.

Once it’s fully up and running, Dangote should be able to process about 650,000 barrels a day of crude into products including gasoline and diesel. That will far exceed the fuelmaking capacity of any single plant in Europe or Africa, helping to reshape the regions’ oil and fuel trading. The emergence of Dangote has already trimmed a glut of Nigerian crude.

Since starting up, the refinery has loaded almost 6 million tons of fuel, Precise’s data show. That’s equivalent to almost 45 million barrels. Loading rates averaged about 35,000 tons a day in October, its data show.

Dangote itself said late last month that the refinery had reached processing rates of about 420,000 barrels a day of crude. The plant is also selling into the Nigerian market.

Vitol and Trafigura declined to comment. Dangote and BP didn’t respond to requests to comment.

The composition of fuel cargoes loading from Dangote is closely watched because it offers clues into where the refinery is at in terms of starting up different processing units.

Precise’s figures show that automotive gasoil — diesel — is the biggest cargo type being lifted, followed by fuel oil. Together, they account for more than 60% of what’s being collected from the plant. Other fuels include gasoline and jet fuel.