In what can regarded as an important milestone and historic feat, the $20bn 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Refinery has scored another first as a global leader in the oil industry by exporting two cargoes of jet fuel to the world’s fourth-largest company in the world by revenue, Saudi Aramco.
Saudi Aramco, headquartered in Dhahran, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company and the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.
As of 2024, Saudi Aramco has both the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 270 billion barrels (43 billion cubic metres), and the largest daily oil production of all oil-producing companies.
Speaking on the uniqueness of the development, the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, also disclosed during a tour of the plant on Tuesday by directors of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) that the Refinery would continue to make great strides in the oil sector as part of the ambitions set by the management.
He said, “We are already attaining even the ambitious heights we set for ourselves, and we are delighted to let you know that we have just sold two cargoes of jet fuel to Saudi Aramco.”
It is important to note that the S&P Global, an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, with a focus on financial information and analytics, had reported that the British Petroleum (BP) bought its first jet fuel cargo from the Dangote Refinery through its Doric Breeze Vessel, marking the inaugural BP cargo of about 45,000 mt.
“The European shipment demonstrates the growing reach of products from the 650,000 barrels a day Dangote Refinery as it has rapidly ramped up operations and aims to shake up established West African trade flows,” S&P Global stated.
The Refinery, early last year, issued tenders for the first export of cargoes from the refinery. The first cargo was 65,000 metric tonnes of low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil, which Dangote awarded to Trafigura, and the second tender was for about 60,000 metric tonnes of naphtha.
According to ship-tracking data and market sources, Asia’s oil hub, Singapore, received its first low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil cargo exported from Dangote Refinery, marking a new trade flow to a region that is structurally short on low-sulphur fuel oil required to meet the demand for ship refuelling at the world’s largest bunker hub.
