The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has expressed interest in buying refined petroleum products from Dangote Oil Refinery, when it comes on stream in 2022.

The marketers, who toured the 650,000 barrels-per-day single train refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos recently, expressed belief that the Dangote Oil Refinery would help remove the various bottlenecks associated with importation of petroleum products into the country.

MOMAN members who visited the refinery included the Managing Director 11 Plc cum MOMAN Chairman, Adetunji Oyebanji; Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Clement Isong; Managing Director, Total Nigeria Plc, Imrane Barry; Managing Director, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, Marco Storari; Managing Director, ARDOVA Plc, Olumide Adeosun; Managing Director, NNPC Retail Limited, Elizabeth Aliyuda; and 22 others.

Speaking after the tour, Oyebanji, said the marketers are eagerly waiting for the completion of the refinery, which is expected to make Nigeria self-sufficient in petroleum refining. Oyebanji stated, “It is our desire to see our members buy refined products from Dangote Refinery when it comes on stream. We are open to discuss commercial terms with the management of Dangote Oil Refinery regarding lifting of refined products.

The impact it will have on the market chain will be changed from a situation whereby a marketer will have to wait for four to five months through imports lead time before getting products.

“The turn-around time is going to be much faster. It will be more efficient. Getting products from Dangote Refinery will also give us the possibility of getting the product by vessels or by trucking. It is going to have a positive impact on the way we do business in the downstream sector.

“We believe Dangote Refinery is going to result in delivering decent margins for our members; enough margins for us to begin to rebuild or/upgrade the assets in the industry”.

Earlier, Chief Operations Officer, Dangote Oil Refining Company, Giuseppe Surace told the MOMAN members the refinery has been designed to process a variety of light and medium grades of crude, including petrol, diesel, jet fuel and polypropylene.

According to Surace, refinery has the capacity to produce 50 million litres of petrol and 15 million litres of diesel a day, roughly 10.4 million tonnes of the product, 4.6 million tonnes of diesel, and 4 million tonnes of jet fuel yearly.