MON, MAY 22 2023-theGBJournal |Dangote Refinery, the World’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900 KTPA Polypropylene plant, was officially commissioned today.
The state-of-the-art refinery, located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, Nigeria, at full plant load, is projected to meet 100% of Nigerian consumption requirement of all refined products and still have surplus for export.
It is designed to process not just 100% Nigerian Crude but with refining flexibility to process other crudes from Africa, some from the Middle East and the US Light Tight Oil.
It is important to Note that airlines will be able to buy their Jet Fuel refined in Nigeria directly from Dangote’s 4 million Tonnes/day refined Jet Fuel.
”Overall, we are committed to operating our plant in line with international best practices, recognizing the importance of protecting the environment, and we have adopted stringent environmental, health and safety policies,” Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group, told the dignitaries at the commissioning of the plant.
Aliko Dangote noted that beyond today’s ceremony, ”our first goal is 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.”
Earleir, he assured that the first products from the mega refinery will be delivered by the end of July or beginning of August this year, assuring that the plants will be run at maximum capacity utilization and highest efficiency ”to enable us export competitively to other markets especially in the ECOWAS and wider regions in which twenty three out of twenty five are dependent on imports to meet their petroleum products demand.”
Dangote also assured that at least 40% of the refinery’s products will be available for export, ”and this will result in significant foreign exchange earnings.”
President Muhammadu Buhari who commissioned the sprawling project expressed his delight at the occasion. He recalled his visit to the site to commission the Dangote Fertilizer plant about a year ago, and briefly inspected the refinery complex then under construction.
”At that occasion, the Group Chairman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote assured me that the Refinery will be ready for commissioning before the end of my tenure and extended an invitation to me to return to Lekki for the purpose.”
He described that refinery as a game-changer for the downstream petroleum market, not only in Nigeria but the entire African continent, adding that it is a notable milestone for the economy.
He congratulated Aliko Dangote and his management team for ”achieving this remarkable feat.”
Speaking at the commissioning event, Mallam Kyari, the NNPC Limited Group Managing Director, described the refinery as ”the new deal” and the commissioning as a ”defining moment in Nigeria’s energy industry.”
He said, ”the Dangote Refinery opens the possibility of a genuine commercial market, a step forward in the country’s collective effort to making Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products into the international market.
”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,” he said.
He noted that the lingering challenge of the petroleum subsidy is clearly getting out of the capacity of the state to bear, and the differentials that domestic refining will provide is insignificant and cannot compensate for the subsidies.
”And may I use this opportunity say that it is very difficult to continue to bear subsidy bills in the excess of N400 billion every month.”
He confirmed again the corporation’s 20% equity stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical.
Our equity holding in the gigantic asset is strategic, as a supplier of last resort to the Nigeria Market. ”We will continue to work with investors to develop hydrocarbon assets, using the most modern and innovative technologies to realize the potentials of our resources and empower the transition to clean energy.”
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