Dangote Refinery Billionaire Rides to Europe and UK Rescue as Jet Fuel Stocks Tighten

• Europe and the U.K. turn to Dangote refinery for jet fuel
• Europe imported over 17 million bbl from Dangote this year
• The 650k b/d Nigerian refinery launched a massive IPO

Europe and the U.K. are increasingly turning to Africa’s richest man for supplies of jet fuel as disruption to supplies from the Middle East and decades of underinvestment in refineries catches up with the region.

“Europe is luckier because we are supplying most of their jet fuel,” Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest man and founder of the continent’s largest refinery, in Nigeria, said during a speech given Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York. “Africa supplying Europe — that is a big change.”

Year to date, Europe has imported about 17.05 million bbl from the Dangote refinery, according to Vortexa. The ship-tracking service estimates the U.K., which built its last refinery in 1969, has imported a third of its jet fuel from Dangote in the year to date.

In the first half of this year, European countries in the OECD imported an estimated 89.4 million bbl of jet fuel and kerosene, according to the latest International Energy Agency data released earlier this month.

European and U.K. airlines have pivoted to West Africa for jet fuel supplies over the last six months after the IEA warned in April that the region had approximately six weeks of supplies remaining, after Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz and attacked energy infrastructure including Gulf refineries.

Jet fuel prices have doubled in the last six months. OPIS, part of Dow Jones Energy, last assessed U.S. Northeast jet fuel at $4.7765/gal on Sept. 18. The average price for New York Harbor Barge Jet Fuel on Feb. 2 was assessed at $2.3098/gal, according to OPIS historical pricing data.

The 650,000 b/d Dangote refinery came onstream earlier this year after more than a decade of work and $20 billion of investment in the project. Dangote plans to double the facilities output to 1.4 million b/d and build another plant in East Africa.

“We will send the finished product instead of just the raw materials,” said Dangote.

“We wanted to de-risk the project itself. Building a 700,000-b/d refinery is easier said than done. We’re talking about a refinery that has never been built before anywhere — not just in Africa, but anywhere,” he said.

Dangote launched Africa’s largest initial public offering last week as he seeks to tap into investor appetite.

“Part of our legacy is to make Africa self-sufficient,” he said.

–By Andrew Critchlow, andrew.critchlow@dowjones.com, and Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Dean Visser, dean.visser@dowjones.com

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