Dangote Group has appointed the previous head of Oman’s Duqm Refinery as the primary Chief Government Officer (CEO) of its petroleum and petrochemicals enterprise because it strives to beat manufacturing challenges and advance its subsequent wave of growth.
Efficient from July 2025, David Chicken stepped in as CEO of the Dangote Group’s fuels and petrochemicals enterprise, which commissioned the world’s largest single-train refinery final yr.
Chicken stated his focus at Dangote will contain advancing the group’s footprint past the Nigerian market and throughout the African continent.
As CEO of the refining enterprise, he shall be liable for making certain most output and effectivity for the refinery, and goals to make the group a pacesetter within the international market, he stated in a LinkedIn replace.
The appointment comes after a string of unit upsets and ‘design points’ which have stalled the ramp-up technique of the 650,000-b/d refinery, whereas its management has referred to as out a hostile enterprise atmosphere for difficult its operations.
Because it was commissioned in January 2024, Dangote has rapidly grown its market share within the Nigerian gas sector, displacing massive volumes of gasoline imports that the nation as soon as relied on.
Nevertheless, Aliko Dangote has railed in opposition to ‘rent-seeking’ commerce companions and substandard gas imports for placing pressure on the enterprise.
In a earlier interview with Platts, Chicken emphasised a trading-led strategy to attain a aggressive edge within the refining sector, with a concentrate on excessive utilisation charges, effectivity and feedstock flexibility.
His strategy aligns with a latest shift from the Dangote advanced to course of a wider vary of crude grades, partially spurred by restricted availability of the Nigerian oil it was designed to course of.
Dangote Group founder, Aliko Dangote will keep on as chairman of the refining enterprise and CEO of the broader conglomerate, which can also be energetic in cement, fertilizers and sugar refining.
The enterprise is anticipated to faucet Chicken’s expertise increasing the Duqm Refinery and diversifying its crude slate as CEO of OQ8, a task he adopted months earlier than the Omani advanced started its first take a look at runs in 2023.
Nevertheless, the Nigerian refinery remains to be obliged to promote fastened volumes of its oil merchandise into the home crude market below a naira-based commerce settlement with the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm, a 7.2 per cent stakeholder within the enterprise.
Because the Dangote Group eyes its subsequent wave of development, it plans to broaden the capability of the Lagos refinery to 700,000 b/d, construct out port infrastructure and set up overseas storage property in Namibia and different nations.
In August, it’s set to roll out its personal distribution enterprise with a fleet of 4,000 CNG-powered vans.
Dangote Group officers have additionally shared ambitions to listing the refining enterprise on the London and Lagos inventory exchanges, and Aliko Dangote reiterated plans to take the enterprise public July 22.
After years of setbacks and funds challenges, the pace of the refinery’s ramp-up in 2024 caught many analysts without warning, and the advanced rapidly started exerting strain on international oil benchmarks because it started exporting its merchandise.
But, regardless of starting take a look at runs on its fundamental gasoline outlet, the residue fluid catalytic cracker, in Q3 2024, the corporate has since suffered repeated outages on the unit in 2025, forcing it to depend on its lower-yield reformer and sacrifice output over prolonged intervals.
Talking to Platts earlier in July, a Dangote government stated the RFCC was operating at 85%. He denied stories that the corporate will endure a deliberate turnaround on the unit in December.
In accordance with S&P World Commodities at Sea knowledge, Nigeria exported some 220,000 b/d of petroleum merchandise in July 2025, when outages at NNPC services made Dangote the nation’s solely energetic refiner.
The advanced exported 30,000 b/d of residual gas, a refining byproduct which might usually be stored on website for additional processing within the RFCC below regular operations.
Exports proceed to be dominated by jet gas, which accounted for 45 per cent of whole shipments, and gasoil with a 24 per cent share.
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