Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has hired a crude oil manager as he builds a London trading office to manage crude and fuel deals for his new mega refinery near Lagos, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Graham Campbell has been hired as the team’s crude oil manager, the sources said, and is expected to start in the next few months.
Campbell, who is at British oil firm Prax, will be joined by a senior refined products trader as well as a senior tanker charterer, and a risk and derivatives trader. The traders will be based in London and report to Radha Mohan who joined Dangote in 2021 from Indian refiner Essar. Campbell also worked at Essar prior to Prax.
The world’s biggest oil traders and state-firms have been vying for supply and pre-finance deals but so far, Dangote has not signed any long-term contracts. Instead, he wants to set up his own team.
However, he has done small financing deals with Vitol and Trafigura to cover some of of his operational costs. Building the refinery drained him of cash as costs ballooned to $20 billion.
The refinery is also procuring several cargoes per month of Nigerian crude from state-owned NNPC that has a stake in the plant and secured U.S. grade WTI cargoes from the spot market.
The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Lekki, Nigeria started operations and its first products were sold in February. The plant has sold cargoes of straight-run fuel oil, diesel and naphtha so far.
Gasoline production is expected to start by the middle of this year.