The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has denied a report that it could shut its petrol unit for two to three months. The spokesman of the Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, described the report as “fake”.
Reuters 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. According to the report, the unit was said to have been shut since around August 29 after catalyst leaks.
The report added 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.
However, Chiejina debunked the claims, describing them as fake news.
The Dangote spokesman wondered why the news agency used ‘could’ if it was sure of the planned shutdown.
“Fake news. Why ‘could’ if they are sure?” Chiejina told our correspondent when he was contacted for a reaction on Sunday. Reuters had reported that Dangote’s RFCCU was expected to be shut for at least two weeks.
The Dangote refinery, which began processing crude in January 2024, has slashed 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.
