Dangote Refinery crude deliveries hit record 735,000 bpd in October – Businessday NG

Crude deliveries to Nigeria’s Dangote refinery climbed to a record 735,000 barrels a day in October, the second consecutive monthly high, as the Lekki plant continued to run above its stated capacity of 700,000 barrels a day, according to Argus tracking data.

Receipts rose from 665,000 barrels a day in September. Deliveries have risen sharply since planned work on a crude distillation unit in the first quarter of the year.

From January to October, deliveries averaged 590,000 barrels a day, up from 410,000 barrels a day across all of 2025. Since April, they have averaged 650,000 barrels a day.

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Only minor work on the refinery’s 218,000-barrel-a-day residual fluid catalytic cracker in July has interrupted the upward trend since the distillation unit work, Argus data show.

Nigerian grades dominate

Nigerian grades made up 80 percent of October receipts, down from 87 percent in September. The remainder was U.S. West Texas Intermediate. The refinery received a record 23 deliveries during the month.

Bonny Light was the largest single grade at 165,000 barrels a day, followed by WTI at 140,000 barrels a day and Qua Iboe at 95,000 barrels a day.

Amenam supplied 65,000 barrels a day and Forcados 60,000 barrels a day. Escravos, Brass River, Utapate, CJ Blend and Bonga each contributed 35,000 barrels a day. Cawthorne supplied 25,000 barrels a day and Okwuibome 10,000 barrels a day.

The shift toward more WTI in October suggests the refinery is leaning on imported crude to keep volumes high, though Nigerian barrels still account for the large majority of its feedstock.

Crude quality steady

Argus assessed the October slate at a weighted average of 36.9 degrees API and 0.15 percent sulphur, unchanged from September. The ten-month average was 37.1 degrees API and 0.15 percent sulphur, very close to the 36.8 degrees API and 0.2 percent sulphur recorded across 2025.

The stable quality indicates the refinery has been able to expand volumes without a material change in the character of the crude it processes, even as the grade mix has moved.

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No slowdown in sight

There are no signs that the pace of deliveries is easing in November. Two 1 million-barrel cargoes, one of Escravos and one of Forcados, are close to the refinery’s discharge buoys. A similarly sized shipment of Amenam is on its way.

Deliveries above nameplate capacity do not necessarily mean the plant is processing more than 700,000 barrels a day, since crude can be added to storage. The data nonetheless show how much feedstock the refinery is securing as it ramps up operations.

The record run reflects a turnaround from the early part of the year, when planned work on the crude distillation unit curbed intake. Since then, supply has recovered and climbed steadily, and the plant now takes in more crude than at any point in the period tracked by Argus.

Dangote’s rising demand also matters for crude sellers. The refinery is now a major buyer of Nigerian grades, and its appetite for U.S. WTI links the Lekki plant to Atlantic Basin crude flows beyond West Africa.

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