Nigeria’s Dangote petroleum refinery plans to construct storage tanks in Namibia to hold at least 1.6 million barrels of gasoline and diesel, aimed at supplying refined fuel to southern Africa.
According to Reuters, the move underscores the refinery’s ambition to dominate fuel supply in Africa and beyond, potentially reshaping energy trade flows in the region and boosting access to refined products for southern African nations.
The 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery, built at a cost of US$20 billion by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, started operations last year and has been ramping up production while seeking new markets.
Sources briefed on the development said the storage tanks would be used to supply gasoline and diesel to Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Dangote was also considering supplying fuel to southern Democratic Republic of Congo, the sources added.
A Dangote spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear how much the project would cost, but a second source said construction of the storage tanks would begin shortly in the port city of Walvis Bay.
A Namibia Ports Authority official confirmed the plans and said the storage tanks would be housed within the Walvis Bay harbour.
A source said last month that a Dangote gasoline cargo was heading to Asia, marking the first time the refinery was selling gasoline outside the West Africa region.
Dangote Refinery says that, at full capacity, the plant would produce enough to meet demand in Nigeria—which has sharply cut imports of processed fuels—and export the rest.
This comes as, last month, Aliko Dangote was in Namibia, where he paid a courtesy visit to President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Governor of the Bank of Namibia Johannes !Gawaxab, and later toured the port of Walvis Bay.
