Giant Dangote oil refinery begins production in 3rd quarter

Nigeria’s giant new Dangote oil refinery will start processing crude in the third quarter of this year.

Mechanical work on the refinery is complete and “hopefully before the end of third quarter we should be in the market,” Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, said in a briefing at the plant site in Lagos.

The plant will start with a processing capacity of 540,000 barrels a day, Dangote said. “Full production can start maybe, by the end of the year or beginning of 2023,” he said.

The facility, which will cost an estimated $19 billion to build, has an installed capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. Its output will be more than enough to meet Nigeria’s fuel demands and turn Africa’s largest crude producer into an exporter of refined crude.

Dangote, Africa’s richest man, addressed reporters along with Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, which previously provided $300 million loan in support of the project.

The AfDB head and Dangote discussed possible collaboration to expand the billionaire’s businesses to more African countries to take advantage of the free trade area agreement, according to Adesina. They also talked about setting up an industrial manufacturing corps on the continent made up of the engineers that built the refinery. This will ensure that the skills gained can be shared with other countries in Africa and outside the continent.

Dangote, originally a cement tycoon, is worth $20.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.