The opening of a major new Nigerian oil refinery, potentially next year, could spell bad news for the regional tanker trades, a top US shipbroker has warned.

When it is commissioned, the Dangote refinery will dramatically change the crude oil and refined product balances in Nigeria and the wider West Africa region, according to Poten & Partners.

The facility, which is situated in the Lekki Free Zone on Nigeria’s coast, about 30 miles east of the commercial capital of Lagos, is the brainchild of Africa’s richest person, Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote.