How 650,000 bpd of Dangote Refinery will benefit Nigeria – Mohammed

The 650,000 barrels per day of Dangote Refinery, expected to be commissioned this year, will be a game-changer in terms of employment generation, contribution to the GDP and conservation of foreign exchange, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, and Culture, said.

With the petroleum refinery and petrochemical plant and the fertiliser plant, he assured that there would be no more importation of petroleum products, rather there will be export of finished product, availability of petroleum products thus ending petrol queues and attract foreign capital investments.

The Dangote Fertilizer plant is already exporting to the US, India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. “We were fortunate to witness a ship being loaded with urea for export to Argentina,” he said.

He disclosed this after a tour of the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant, as well as the Dangote Fertilizer plant and the Jetty on Sunday at the Lagos Free Trade Zone.

“After visiting the facilities, one can conveniently say that Dangote is leading Nigeria’s industrial revolution. With the coming on stream of the Dangote Fertilizer Plant, Nigeria is now self-sufficient in the production of urea. In fact, Nigeria is now the leading producer of urea in Africa ” he said.

“The coming into being of such massive industrial complexes as the Dangote Fertilizer Company and the Refinery were made possible by the enabling environment provided by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

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Total investment in the refinery is above $19 billion, while total investments in the fertiliser plant is $2.5 billion, reports show.

The Africa’s largest economy’s oil refinery being built by Dangote is due to begin production by the fourth quarter of 2022, Devakumar Edwin, group executive director, strategy, capital projects and portfolio development, Dangote Industries Limited said during the tour.

Edwin explained that the petroleum refinery and petrochemical complex is world’s largest single train petroleum refinery with 650,000 barrels per day petroleum refining capacity and 900,000 tonnes per annum polypropylene plant, adding that it is a 435 mega watts power plant.

The refinery, he said is designed to maximise gasoline production – 53 percent of the production capacity, compared to most of the refineries in the world which produce 20 percent to 25 percent gasoline.

According to him, the petroleum refinery can meet 100 percent of the requirements of Nigeria, of all the liquid products – Gasoline (PMS), Diesel (AGO), Kerosene (DPK) and Aviation Jet Fuel (Jet A-1).

While 60 percent of the production of this petroleum refinery can meet the entire requirement of Nigeria, the rest 40 percent will go for export, generating huge amount of foreign exchange.

The company has invested in 2570 construction equipment including, 2238 Civil Construction Equipment and 332 Mechanical Construction Equipment, making Dangote Projects one of the largest construction companies in the world.

“The petroleum refinery is built on 200,000 piles – largest number on piles in any single project in the world. We are the 3rd company in the world to execute a Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical complex directly, as an EPC contractor,” he said.