The Dangote refinery's 650,000 b/d crude distillation unit (CDU) in Nigeria is operating again after maintenance, while the gasoline-producing residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) is expected to begin test runs next week ahead of restarting, chief executive David Bird said.
The CDU received 170,000 bl of crude on 8 February, followed by 450,000 bl on 9 February and 537,000 bl on 10 February, according to industry sources and a source at the refinery.
Bird said this week that the CDU was "operating steadily at the full nameplate capacity of 650,000 b/d". The highest throughput achieved as of 20 January was 570,000 b/d, according to an internal company report seen by Argus at the time.
The CDU was offline for around two weeks from 24 January for maintenance. Dangote imported intermediate products during the outage to maintain supply to customers. Bird's reference to the 650,000 b/d nameplate figure suggests that planned de-bottlenecking work — expected to lift capacity to 700,000 b/d — has not yet been completed.
The RFCC, which has been offline since December, is scheduled to begin "performance test runs" next week, Bird said. The naphtha hydrotreater, isomerisation unit and catalytic reformer — which Dangote groups together as the "motor spirit block" — were running this week but had not yet reached full capacity following January maintenance, an industry source told Argus.
Dangote told Argus on 11 February that "full restoration and optimisation" of the motor spirit block had been achieved.
