The Dangote Refinery is set to export a shipment of low-sulfur straight-run fuel oil (LSSR) from Nigeria to Singapore this week. The information is based on ship tracking data and market sources, indicating that this is the first time Africa’s largest refinery is entering the Asian market.

The shipment initiates a new trade route from the new refinery to Aisa, which reportedly lacks the low-sulfur fuel oil required for powering ships at Singapore, the world’s largest bunker hub

The $20 billion refinery can process about 650,000 barrels of petroleum products daily and is poised to be Africa’s largest and the world’s biggest single-train refinery when it reaches total capacity. The refinery has been touted as the solution to Nigeria and Africa’s petroleum product imports, especially petrol.

Dangote makes bold promise to Nigerians:

Chairman of Dangote Industries Aliko Dangote promised that Nigeria would not need to import petrol when PMS production begins in mid-July.

Reports say the Dangote refinery has shored up its LSSR exports, sending shipments to the Americas and Europe, according to data from Kpler and Vortexa.

The first Asian-bound shipment will arrive on Wednesday, July 26, 2024, aboard the Glencore-chartered vessel Front Brage and will deliver about 124,000 metric tons of LSSR to Singapore.

Market sources say the cargo was redirected to Asia due to weaker European demand. LSSR products from the Dangote refinery are priced against Rotterdam’s 0.5% LSFO quotes on a free-on-board basis. There is currently no pricing differential for the shipment. Another LSSR shipment from the refinery, about 157,000 tons, is expected to reach Singapore in July aboard the Stena Suede vessel. LSSR is always mixed with other fuels to create low-sulfur oil (LSFO) for bunkering or used as feedstock in various refinery processes.

The refinery began exporting petroleum products in February 2024 and bought crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) in December last year.