Dangote Refinery Mulls Lagos, London Stock Exchange Listings

•NNPC records 310 crude theft cases in seven days

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Dangote refinery is aiming for a dual listing on the London and Lagos bourses, a senior executive at the firm, Devakumar Edwin, has told Reuters.

Africa’s richest man and Chairman of the group, Aliko Dangote was earlier on Tuesday,  quoted as saying he could try to list the company in Nigeria by the end of the year.

It is coming about six months after Dangote, also told the Financial Times of his intentions to publicly list the subsidiary of the Group, Dangote Petroleum Refinery on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

At the time, Dangote stated that the company had resolved challenges about crude oil supply and was prepared for the listing.

The billionaire businessman already has some companies listed on the NGX, including Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery and Nascon Allied Industries.

The refinery managers said there was need to approach the London Exchange because the Nigerian bourse may not have the capacity to handle it exclusively.

Asked to comment on Dangote’s statement to local media, Edwin told Reuters: “We have listed all our businesses. The NSE (Nigerian Stock Exchange) will not have adequate depth to handle exclusively the petroleum refinery. We would have to take it to LSE (London Stock Exchange) but also list in NSE.”

The refinery, Africa’s largest, built on a peninsula on the outskirts of the commercial capital Lagos at a cost of $20 billion, was completed after several years of delay.

It can refine up to 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) and will be the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity this year or next.

Dangote has been trying to secure crude supplies for his refinery. He has interests in Dangote Cement, Dangote Flour Mills and Dangote Sugar, all listed on the Nigerian bourse.

In May, the company reached its first supply deal with TotalEnergies, after it put out a tender for 2 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude every month for a year starting in July, according to tender documents.

The company since earlier in the year, has been refining diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products and is expected to begin the production of petrol in June.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited  (NNPC) has said  it recorded 310 cases of crude oil theft in the past week.

In its weekly update on the activities of the national oil company, the NNPC said that the cases  were discovered between May 18 and May 24.

“Between May 18 and 24, 310 cases were recorded across the Niger Delta region by several incidence sources,” the NNPC stated.

In Grey Creek, Akwa Ibom state, it said a fuel station selling illegally refined fuels into cans and drums was uncovered in the past week, revealing that 122 illegal refineries were also uncovered in Bayelsa and Rivers states

According to the company, they were spotted in Tombia II, III, IV, and Umuajuloke, in Rivers state; Iduwini, Biogbolo, and Ajatiton, in Bayelsa state, while 65 illegal connections were discovered across several locations in Akuwa Odoka, Umuajuloke, and Watson Point, also in Rivers state as well as along Soku Sand Barth pipeline in the state.

It added that vandalised wellheads were discovered in Tombia IIII in Rivers state and Egbema in Imo state, where a pit filled with crude oil from a vandalised wellhead was discovered.

In Ndoni, Rivers state, NNPC said it uncovered a vandalised pipeline channelled to a nearby oil pit, while five illegal storage sites were spotted in sacks, pits, cans, and in a fuel station.

The NNPC stated that 20 vehicle arrests were made in Delta and Imo states while 48 infractions were reported at sea. Also, 39 wooden boats conveying stolen crude or illegally refined products were seized and confiscated across several creeks in Bayelsa and Delta states, it said.

NNPC said 48 of the incidents occurred in the deep blue water, 40 in the western region, 134 in the central region, and 88 in the eastern region.