Aliko Dangote launches $20 billion refinery to revive Nigeria’s oil business

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) Nigeria on Monday commissioned by the Dangote Oil Refinery – thought-about a “recreation changer” in ending gasoline imports into the nation.

Outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery within the Lekki Free Commerce Zone within the industrial hub of Lagos, in an occasion attended by some West African heads of state.

value $20 billion Large strainer The Dangote Group, owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, goals to supply as much as 53 million liters of petrol per day, in addition to 4 million liters of diesel and a pair of million liters of jet gasoline per day.

Talking on the occasion, Dangote described the refinery as “the biggest single-train refinery on the earth.”

The refinery is anticipated to unravel a few of Nigeria’s oil issues. Regardless of being an oil producing nation and one of many largest oil producers in Africa, Nigeria lacks the capability to refine its oil.

A lot of these merchandise positioned within the West African nation are imported from different nations Similar to India, Belgium, UAE and the Netherlands.

Between 2015 and 2019, the price of importing refined petroleum merchandise exceeded exports by $58.5 billionAccording to OPEC, a bunch of main oil producers.

Nigeria’s lack of refining capability presents many challenges equivalent to spending billions of {dollars} on imports yearly and being susceptible to disruptions in home gasoline provides.

The Dangote refinery is critical as a result of it plans to unravel these issues by doubling the nation’s refining capability, in addition to growing gasoline demand domestically and producing overseas alternate for the nation by means of exports.

“There will probably be a steady availability of high-quality fuels for our transportation sector, and the refinery may also present very important uncooked supplies for our industries of a variety of producing,” mentioned Dangote, who partially financed the development of the refinery.

About 50% of the cash used to construct the refinery got here from Dangote’s fairness funding whereas the opposite half got here from debt financing from banks equivalent to Entry and Zenith.

“We now have constructed a refinery with a processing capability of 650,000 barrels per day in a single practice – the biggest on the earth… We determined to create a plant designed with the newest expertise and a scale in capability that will be a game-changer in Africa and the worldwide market.”

The refinery is positioned throughout the Lekki Free Zone, a 16,500-hectare free-trade zone. The grasp plan additionally accommodates a proposed airport, an rising neighborhood, and industrial and residential areas.

The top of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, Godwin Emifiele, mentioned the refinery “is able to assembly all of Nigeria’s home gasoline consumption, given its processing capability.”

Emefiele additional defined that: “Nigeria will be self-sufficient in all of the merchandise we eat and on the identical time export our surplus manufacturing to the remainder of the world.”

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was additionally current on the occasion, described the Dangote refinery as an “wonderful undertaking that ‘makes West Africa higher and stronger’”.

The refinery is seven instances the dimensions of Victoria Island in Lagos, with an space of ​​over 2,000 hectares.