Dangote’s Commences Fuel Distribution From S’West As 1,000 Trucks Arrived

Barring any last-minute change in plan, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is expected to start its direct fuel distribution scheme soon, as 1,000 Compressed Natural Gas-powered trucks required for the exercise have arrived in Nigeria.

With the 1,000 trucks, the refinery would start distributing fuel directly to marketers in Lagos, Ogun, and other South-West states, pending the delivery of the remaining 3,000 trucks.

Impeccable sources and officials at the $20bn Lekki-based plant, who did not want to be named due to a lack of authorisation to speak to the press, told our correspondent that more trucks have been coming into the country in batches. They expressed optimism that all the trucks would be delivered by the end of next month.

The PUNCH exclusively reported last week that the planned fuel distribution by the Dangote refinery with the 4,000 CNG-powered trucks could not start on August 15 due to logistics challenges in China. The firm had earlier announced plans to kick off the direct fuel distribution exercise with the 4,000 CNG-powered trucks. The trucks were ordered from China to be delivered in Lagos for Dangote’s direct fuel distribution.

However, the plan could not materialise because the company was only able to receive 450 trucks as of last week, with 150 on the way, bringing the total to 600 trucks last week. But on Sunday, sources within the company said the number of trucks received had risen to 1,000, while the remaining 3,000 are expected to arrive before the end of September.

A very senior executive officer of the Dangote Group told our correspondent that there were not enough ships to transport the trucks to Nigeria from China. This challenge stalled the shipping of the trucks to Nigeria before August 15, when the scheme was supposed to commence.

“There are not enough ships coming from China to handle 4,000 trucks and 4,000 tankers,” the source stated last week. He gave further insights, saying the Dangote Group received 200 trucks in the first shipment and 250 in the second batch, while another 150 were on a vessel.