Nigeria's Dangote refinery boosts exports to ease Africa's supply crunch

By Kazeem Sanni

LAGOS, April 6 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Dangote refinery, Africa's largest, has increased exports of gasoline and urea to African countries hit by supply disruptions caused by the Iran war, its owner Aliko Dangote said on Monday.

Dangote said the refinery, which is operating at its maximum capacity of 650,000 barrels a day, had helped cushion the full impact of the crisis both in Nigeria and across the continent.

"What I can do is assure Nigerians ... and most of West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa, we have the capacity to supply them," Dangote said during a tour of the refinery on the edge of commercial capital Lagos.

He said the facility had shipped some 17 cargoes of gasoline to other African nations and exports of urea fertiliser had also recently risen, as buyers sought alternative sources of supply.

"In the last couple of days, we've been looking to mostly African countries, which we were not doing before," he said, referring to the fertiliser shipments, without giving figures.

The refinery has capacity to produce up to 3 million metric tons of urea annually, most of which is typically exported to the United States and South America, officials say.

Fuel prices in oil-producing Nigeria have reached record-high levels, industry figures show, as maximum output from Dangote refinery has not offset the impact of high crude prices.

Dangote said the refinery hoped to get more crude cargoes priced in local currency to help curb fuel costs.

Two trade sources and a refinery official told Reuters last week that state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Company was allocating seven May cargoes for Dangote refinery, up from five in previous months.