President of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote has revealed that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has enough Premium Motor Spirit (PMS otherwise known as petrol) in storage to sufficiently meet the local needs of Nigeria.
Dangote stated this at a tour of the Refinery complex by the Zambia government delegation, led by the country’s minister of Energy, Makozo Chikote held at the weekend.
Dangote disclosed that the oil refinery has more than half a billion litres of petroleum and over N600 billion worth of products in its tanks.
He said, “as we speak right now we have more than half a billion litres. The Refinery is producing enough refined products, like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements.”
“This refinery is not only for Nigeria; it is for Africa. We must sustain the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deal. We are trying to see how we trade with other African countries, and we are looking at various ways to make this happen; we are going to make sure that we supply them with the best standard and quality products. We are going to give them energy security, build a few tanks, and ensure they don’t run out of fuel,” Dangote said.
The Zambian minister of Energy, Makozo Chikote said his takeaway from the Dangote Refinery working visit was that the president, Aliko Dangote, is truly focused on the bigger picture for Africa. Chikote expressed satisfaction and readiness to work with the African manufacturing giant.
After a tour of the Dangote complex at the Free Trade Zone, Ibeju Lekki, starting from the Single Point Mooring to the Dangote Jetty, the biggest fertiliser plant in Africa and the 650,000bpd largest single-train refinery in the world, the minister enthused that the presentation by the vice president, Oil and Gas of Dangote Industries Limited, Edwin Devakumar, made their hearts ‘jump’.
He stated that the presentation speaks to the challenges of his country, Zambia.
The Energy minister added, “In Zambia, we created an environment for the private sector to participate in the growth and development of our country. Currently, 100 per cent of our petroleum is done by the private sector. We are targeting increased productivity in mining, agriculture, and other sectors. Your presentation is an immediate solution to our energy needs. We are trying to promote competition among our private players.
“We are looking at Dangote coming on board, which would lead to efficient, reliable, quality, and competitive products, and we want these done.”
According to him, from what we have seen, we need to promote trade within Africa to promote each other. We need these countries together to make Africa efficient, and a reliable trade hub.
Another member of the Zambia delegation, the vice president of Budget, Performance Review, and Strategic Planning at the World Bank Group and presently campaigning for the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Samuel Maimbo explained that there is not enough development aid to develop Africa.
“There is also not enough government funding to develop Africa. The only way we can finance Africa’s growth at a pace and scale that solves our problem is by working through the private sector, which is why we are here today, to learn and to see what an ambitious programme looks like,” he stressed.
He added that it is only the private sector that can help develop the continent of Africa.
The vice president of Dangote Industries Limited, Edwin Devakumar stated that the Refinery produces the best quality products as its core business strategy.
“The project concept was to process the crude from Nigeria and add value. But we also wanted to provide some flexibility to process most of the African crudes and some of the Middle Eastern crudes. In another concept, what we did was maximum value extraction. That is a process where every barrel of crude which goes in, the value addition should be the best,” he said.
