Ghana considers importing petroleum from the Dangote refinery

When Nigeria’s Dangote Oil Refinery reaches full capacity, Ghana might purchase petroleum products from it, reducing the need for more costly exports from Europe, the director of Ghana’s oil regulator said Monday.

At the OTL Africa Downstream oil conference in Lagos, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the head of Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority, stated that this might eliminate $400 million in petroleum imports from Europe each month.

“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 stated.

According to experts, the Dangote Oil refinery, which was constructed by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, is anticipated to run close to capacity by the end of the year and may be completely operational by the first quarter of 2025.

Hamid said that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe will result in lower pricing for other goods and services. 

He predicted that African nations will eventually settle on a single currency, which would reduce demand for US dollars. In the second quarter of 2024, Ghana’s GDP rose 6.9% year over year, mostly due to the robust growth of the extractive industry, which increased demand for petroleum.