By Emmanuel Nduka
Group Executive Director of Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects for the Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, has informed that the firm’s 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery under construction in Lagos, Nigeria, is due to begin production by the fourth quarter of 2022.
Edwin who disclosed this during a recent site tour with Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed, said: “75% hydraulic testing … as well as 70% of electrical cable fitting have been completed preparatory to the completion of the refinery in the fourth quarter of this year.”
The refinery, being built at a cost of $19 billion, has 4.74 billion litres storage capacity, Edwin said. He added that 75% of products will be moved by sea within Nigeria.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, had in January affirmed that he expects his oil refinery project to begin production by the end of the third quarter and reach full capacity by early 2023.
But the project has been delayed by several years and the cost has shot to $19 billion from Dangote’s earlier estimates of $12 billion to $14 billion.
Dangote, who built his fortune in the cement industry, first announced the intention to build a refinery in 2013, with the project expected to be finished in 2016.
This development comes as the Nigerian Government is battling with dwindling oil revenue caused by activities of oil thieves in the Niger Delta region.
To address the issue, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited recently awarded a N48bn per year contract to ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, for surveillance on oil pipeline installations in the Niger Delta region.
Despite being Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter, Nigeria depends almost entirely on fuel imports after allowing its significant refining capacity of 445,000 bpd to become dilapidated over several decades.
Recently, Dangote commissioned a $2.5 billion fertiliser plant, located within his refinery and petrochemical complex, which is already exporting urea to the United States, India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
