On January 24, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will officially open the Dangote Oil Refinery, the largest vertically integrated petrochemical complex in the world and the property of Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa.
The refinery, which is situated in Lagos’ Lekki Free Zone, has a daily processing capacity of 540,000 barrels of Nigerian crude oil, rising to 650,000 barrels per day after that.
The $19 billion project is a calculated move by Dangote and the Nigerian government to develop the nation’s downstream sector and turn it into a nett exporter of petrochemicals and refined petroleum products by 2026.
The refinery is anticipated to supply all of Nigeria’s needs for refined products, with a surplus left over for export, opening up a market for $11 billion in petroleum products from Nigeria per year.
Additionally, the facility will produce 3 billion standard cubic feet of gas, 65 million litres of premium motor spirits (petrol), 15 million litres of diesel, and 4 million metric tonnes of jet fuel each day.
The Dangote Refinery will be responsible for more than half of Africa’s future refining increases, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The refinery, with a capacity of 650 000 barrels per day, is the greatest of all the refinery additions projected across Africa in the long term, according to OPEC, with the continent’s medium-future distillation additions estimated at 1.2 million barrels per day.
Originally slated to open in 2022, the Dangote refinery has been delayed by a number of issues, including a lack of access to foreign currency, a weak economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which hastened the arrival of refinery equipment and disrupted supply lines.
A significant accomplishment for both Nigeria and the continent of Africa is the start of operations at the refinery. With Dangote in charge, it will not only provide desperately needed refined petroleum products for internal consumption but also potentially open up a sizable export market.
