Nigeria's privately-owned Dangote is considering expanding nameplate capacity at its refinery near Lagos to 700,000 b/d from 650,000 b/d, executive director Edwin Devakumar told Argus.
"In most of the departments, our production level has gone far beyond 100pc," Devakumar said. "So, we need to just do a bit of de-bottlenecking to increase the overall production."
The Dangote refinery started operations in early 2024, and after a slow ramp-up receipts of crude are 644,000 b/d to date in July, according to Kpler. This makes it likely the refinery will surpass the monthly record of 445,000 b/d set in June.
Gasoline sales from the refinery began in September.
"We have already crossed 120pc of the nameplate capacity of the mild hydrocracker, 125pc of capacity at the RFCC gasoline desulphurisation unit, 106pc of capacity at the continuous catalytic regeneration unit, 140pc of capacity in the Penex process, and 143pc of capacity at the naphtha hydrotreater", Devakumar said. He previously said the refinery was buying more naphtha to boost gasoline output.
Devakumar gave no timeline on the expansion plans, but industry sources said this could happen by as early as December.
