The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has noted that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is influencing the Premium Motor Spirit market in Europe.
The refinery, with a production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, began its operations in January of the previous year and began producing PMS in September.
This marks a major shift, as Nigeria, historically reliant on importing fuel, now has the capacity to meet its own domestic fuel needs and potentially influence the broader global fuel market.
Since beginning production, the Dangote refinery has exported petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel to various countries across Africa and beyond.
A report by OPEC on Wednesday highlighted that the emergence of the refinery has significantly reduced Nigeria’s reliance on petroleum product imports from Europe.
“The ongoing operational ramp-up efforts at Nigeria’s new Dangote refinery and its gasoline (petrol) exports to the international market will likely weigh further on the European gasoline market.
“Continued gasoline production in Nigeria, a country that has relied heavily on imports to meet its domestic fuel needs in the past, will most likely continue to free up gasoline volumes in international markets which will call for new destinations and flow adjustments for the extra volumes going forward,” the report partly said.
In the last quarter of 2024, OPEC said “imports also declined, particularly oil product imports, improving the outlook for the external sector.”
The report noted that the gasoline crack spread in Rotterdam against Brent saw a slight increase, driven by strong exports, even though gasoline inventories at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp storage hub remained high.
It further indicated that gasoline inventory builds are likely to continue into the next month, as a longer gasoline balance in the Atlantic Basin is anticipated due to winter-season demand pressures.
OPEC stated that the ongoing recovery in gasoline refinery output is likely to worsen the already bearish market sentiment.
Meanwhile, the Monthly Oil Market Report disclosed that the average daily crude production in Nigeria hit 1.507 million barrels in December, according to data OPEC got from secondary sources.
It was said to have risen by 12,000bpd, from 1.477mbpd in November.
However, the figure provided by the government for December was 1.485 million barrels per day (mbpd), which aligns with the data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
Recall that the Dangote refinery was ranked higher than the 10 largest refineries in Europe in terms of capacity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The $20 billion Dangote refinery has a capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of petroleum products per day.
The report noted that this capacity exceeds Shell’s Pernis refinery in the Netherlands by over 246,000 barrels per day.
The report further stated that the Pernis refinery, with an installed capacity of 404,000 barrels per day, is the largest in Europe.
The BP Rotterdam refinery in the Netherlands has a capacity of 380,000 barrels per day, while the GOI Energy ISAB refinery in Italy was built with a refining capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, according to Bloomberg.
