Dangote Refinery Receives First UAE Crude Supply As Operations Expand

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has bought two cargoes of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The latest crude import from the UAE is the first-ever procurement of Middle Eastern crude as the plant expands its feedstock sources amid persistent domestic supply constraints from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, S&P Global Commodity Insights reports.

The refinery was designed to mainly process Nigeria’s light sweet crude, but has diversified its crude slate further as operations ramp up optimally.

The refinery has been expanding the slate of crude grades it refines as part of its ambition to become a fully merchant refinery, S&P Global said. It said Nigeria supplied about 70 per cent of the crude imports to the refinery in 2025 and 24 per cent came from the United States.

The NNPCL had guaranteed the supply of between 13 and 15 cargoes of Nigerian crude monthly in naira under an arrangement called the naira-for-crude deal, which helped the refinery to reduce its foreign exchange exposure.

But the deal did not help the mega-refinery’s domestic crude supply.

Earlier this year, Bird said the refinery planned to boost the share of heavier crude grades in its mix of feedstocks. “We want to heavy up the barrel, for sure,” Bird said in April.

It was reported that crude oil prices had eased to less than $70 a barrel last week but started to rise on Monday after the latest strikes by the United States and Iran despite the completion of the peace deal.