The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is building eight more tanks in its bid to have enough storage for imported crude oil.
Africa Report has it that the refinery is ramping up its storage capacity by 6.29 million barrels which is equal to 1 billion litres.
The report stated that the $20bn refinery is planning to stockpile imported crude oil as local supplies became unreliable.
Officials of the refinery were quoted as saying that low crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited “is driving import dependence.”
The building of eight additional tanks will see crude storage capacity at the $20bn refinery jump by 41.67 per cent to 3.4 billion litres.
“Importing crude from other countries instead of buying locally means that our crude stockpiles will have to be higher,” the Vice President in charge of oil and gas business at Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, was quoted as having said.
“So we have started building eight additional crude tanks to hold a billion litres, over and above our original storage capacity. Four of them are nearing completion,” Edwin added.
Reports show that Dangote’s decision to expand storage facilities for imported crude could be an indication that the naira-for-crude deal ordered by President Bola Tinubu might be fading out gradually.
Before President Bola Tinubu ordered the sale of crude to Dangote refinery in August, the facility had battled months of crude shortage.
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, accused international oil companies of plans to sabotage the refinery by refusing to supply crude oil.
At the moment, the Dangote refinery is ramping up production as its petrol gathers momentum among Nigerian vehicle owners.