The President of the Dangote Industries Group, Aliko Dangote says the newly inaugurated plant will produce its first fuel products by June.
Dangote made this statement while welcoming participants at the commissioning ceremony at the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, South-west Nigeria.
He said the Dangote Petroleum Refinery “is a fulfilment of a long held dream and the product of the Dangote Group’s corporate vision driven by our mission to produce what we consum and promote self-sufficiency in the basic needs of our people while competing globally in the areas of our comparative and competitive advantage.”
“Over two decades ago, we made the commitment to invest in downstream petroleum sector in response to increasing shortages of petroleum products in our country and the consequent challenges on our economy and its negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of our people,”he said.
“Beyond today’s ceremony, our first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy the nation’s demand for quality products” – Aliko Dangote #DangoteRefinery #EnergyForAll #AfricaEmpowered pic.twitter.com/CickpPBs4C
— Dangote Group (@DangoteGroup) May 22, 2023
The Journey
The Dangote Group’s President gave a breakdown on the journey which led to the achievements recorded today.
“Initially, we wanted to enter into the energy market by acquring ground feild refinery with then the government’s privatisation programme in 2007. Regrettably, the outcome of the exercise was result reverse and our payments are returned.”
”This motivated us to rethink market entry strategy and our business model. We subsequently permitted to enter the market broadly with a vision to invest in a greenfield refinery that will transform the industry in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. And that is why we went for the biggest refinery ever built in the world.”
“We decided on a plant design with a set of technology under the scale in capacity that will be a game changer in Africa and the global market. The excellencies distinguished guests, the facility where commission today is aim to reposition Nigeria as a key player in the downstream my case of the global centre of the global market.”
Refinery Capacity
The petroleum plant is designed with a capacity of producing 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil plus non stop 1000 metric tonnes of polypropylene in a single train, which is the largest build ever.
“We have selected the best plan and implementi the latest ability from across.”
“It is also designed to meet the highest quality standards for the high value products including premium motors, PMS, automotive, gas, oil, diesel, abrasion, fuel, kerosene, ATK all of Euro-V standards that will not only to meet Nigeria’s demand, but also to become a key player in the African and the global market.”
“Its coastal location and offshore offshore loading and offloading single point moving facilities with a capacity to receive all crude oil supplies and evacuate up to 75% of our liquid products, given us direct access to the rest of Africa and the global market for exports,” he explained.
Huge Investment
Aliko Dangote said a huge investment of over $18.5 billion in the industry was prompted by the desire to support and contribute to the federal government’s sustained efforts to transform economy and properly position the country as a leading nation in Africa and also a respected member among economies in Africa.
“Your Excellency, Mr. President, this commissioning ceremony is just the beginning of a great journey.”
“A milestone in a new and exciting trajectory for our downstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.”
“It is our firm commitment that we will replicate in this sector what we have actually achieved in the cement, fertiliser market as well as translated from being the largest importer of these two products to a net exporter,” he said.
He further said that “the goal is to ramp up production of the various production to ensure that within this year, we’re able to fully satisfy our nation’s demand for high quality production enable us to eliminate the tragedy of importing of being caught in dependency and stop import dependency from abroad as well as the dumping in our market of toxic substandard petroleum products.
“We intend to efficiently export competitively to market in Africa and outside the region. This is a clear opportunity for Nigeria given the African Union’s commitment to the creation of an African Common Market recently with the African continental free trade area.”
“About 40% the refinery’ s capacity will be available to export and this will result in significant foreign exchange into the country.”
NNPC Stake
Also the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC Mele Kyari while delivering his Industry address at the ceremony confimed its 20% equity stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals.
“The Dangote Refinery with the new deal that we have been building, supported by the enabling Petroleum Industry Act, will surely provide domestic security of supply in our country. The lingering challenges of petroleum subsidies is clearly getting out of the capacity of the… pic.twitter.com/1HcR2gLtum
— NNPC Limited (@nnpclimited) May 22, 2023
Kyari said as part of this significant project, NNPC Limited is permitted to operate in advance in line with international best practice, “recognising the importance of protecting the environment, we have adopted to changing environmental health and safety policies to ensure that the binary operates in a safe and sustainable manner.”
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