The coming on stream of Dangote Refinery is expected to trigger activities that may see the struggling Nigerian economy begin recovery from years of almost total dependence on import of petroleum products and associated depletion of foreign reserves among other woes.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is located in the in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares. It is the world’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900 KTPA Polypropylene Plant.
The 435 MW Power Plant in the Refinery alone will be able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo of 860,316 MWh covering five States including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery can also meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (Gasoline, 53 million litres per day; Diesel, 34 litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet, 2 million litres per day) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.
The refinery is designed for 100 per cent Nigerian Crude with flexibility to process other crudes; Self-sufficient Marine facility with ability for freight optimisation and Largest single order of 5 SPMs anywhere in the world.
Diesel & Gasoline Products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications; the refinery design complies to World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission / effluent norms; and State- of- the- art technology.
The refinery is also designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes and the US Light Tight Oil. Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene & Aviation Jet) and also would have surplus of each of these products for export.
It also has 65 Million Cubic Metres of Sand dredged costing approx. Euros 300 million, using the world’s largest, the second largest and the tenth largest dredgers to elevate the height by 1.5 metres, to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.
Bought over 1,209 units of various equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works since even the biggest local civil contractors are unable to handle even small portions of our construction requirement, Dangote also bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity since the current capacity in Nigeria is extremely poor.
The refinery was built with the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust & material for break water. (10 million tonnes per year production capacity).
It also developed a port and constructed two quays with a load bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/ sq meter to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly; Constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export the fertiliser and the petrochemicals and two quays to handle liquid cargoes, while the port will thus have 6 quays, including a Roll-on/Roll-off quay.
In the course of the civil works, some days, 700 piles were drilled daily, and the total number of piles came to 250,000. It has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litre capacity; Total tanker loading of 2,900 as this number is based on tanker capacity of 33KL.
Dangote is one of the few companies in the world executing a Petroleum Refinery and a Petrochemical complex directly as an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contractor. Globally, apart from three companies, no individual owner has done the complete EPC Contract for a Petroleum Refinery.
It equally has temporary housing units on the premises can house 33,000 persons, as the project utilised the coordination of various local and international suppliers and the coordination of multi-cultural work teams. The Dangote Refinery Plant is a legacy project that will see Nigeria netting $21 billion per annum.
With training of 900 young engineers in refinery operations outside the country, another six Mechanical Engineers trained in the GE University in Italy, 50 Process engineers were also trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months; 50 Management Trainees; secondment for succession.
Meanwhile, industry operators, government officials and stakeholders expressed optimism that the refinery will bring about humongous benefits not just to the oil and gas sector, but to the Nigerian economy at large.
The operators said the refinery is a key driver of growth that would impact positively on the downstream sector of the Nigerian and African economy from this year.
They expected the refinery to save Nigeria billions of naira, based on the fact that import of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as, petrol into the country would cease, going by the refining capacity of the plant.
Director-general of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona said: “with a few days to the inauguration of Dangote Refinery, the Chamber commend the efforts of its visioner, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and the supportive federal government.
“Expected to be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s single-trained facility, the Dangote Refinery has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, sufficient to meet Nigeria’s need for refined petroleum products.”
She said “LCCI views the Refinery’s impact on the Nigerian economy as significant. It will save and generate foreign exchange. The Refinery will create jobs, positively affect the value of the Naira, broaden prosperity for the downstream sector, and provide growth opportunities for businesses. It will also stimulate economic growth by impacting the country’s balance of payments.
“In addition, the Chamber expects the Refinery to fuel further growth and development across its value chain, including cosmetics, plastics, textiles, among others. We also see room for the development of added value in agribusiness, including the Sugar Backward Integration projects that plan to create a strong localized supply in the sugar industry, benefiting local suppliers across the sugar value chain.”
Almona noted that this initiative presents Nigeria as an attractive investment destination for local and foreign investors, urging the government to strengthen its commitment to creating an enabling environment for businesses.
The CEO of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise(CPPE), Muda Yusuf, said, this is a positive development for Oil & Gas sector, adding that, “this is one project many Nigerians have been looking forward to if only to save us from depression of fuel importation and from challenges around our refinery and petroleum products. This is a major development for the economy and particularly Oil & Gas sector.”
He stated that, “this will ease some of the pressure that the country has been experiencing around the importation of petroleum products; it may not totally eradicate the challenges of subsidy, but it will make it easier for us to have engagement on subsidy with stakeholders.
“Stakeholders have been clamoring for domestic refinery of petroleum products and now that this is been achieved and conversation around the subsidy removal will be easier to deal with and this will be a major reform.”
