Ghana moves from Europe, sets to import fuel from Dangote Refinery
Ghana is set to import petroleum products from Nigeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery once it reaches full operational capacity, cutting more expensive exports from Europe, the head of the country’s oil regulator said on Monday.
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Chairman of the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana, indicated that this move could potentially eliminate the nation’s monthly fuel imports from Europe, which currently cost around $400 million. His comments came during the OTL Africa Downstream oil conference in Lagos, as reported by Reuters.
The $20 billion Dangote refinery, located in Lekki, Nigeria, began supplying Premium Motor Spirit (commonly known as petrol) to the Nigerian market on September 15, 2024.
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Despite this development, Nigerian marketers have continued to import significant amounts of petrol following the Federal Government’s total deregulation of the downstream oil sector.
During the conference, Abdul-Hamid expressed optimism about Ghana’s potential transition to importing fuel from the Dangote refinery.
“If the refinery reaches 650,000 bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices.” Hamid said.
The Dangote refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is expected to operate at near full capacity at the end of the year and analysts believe it could be fully operational in the first quarter of 2025.
Hamid said importing from Nigeria rather than Europe would bring down the prices of other goods and services by removing freight costs. Eventually, he said African countries would agree on a common currency that should dampen demand for dollars.
Ghana’s economy, which grew by 6.9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, has been driven largely by a strong expansion of the extractive sector which has boosted demand for fuel.
Proofreading by Fa’izatu Aliyu Doma, Journalist at Neptune Prime.
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