The massive 650,000 bpd Dangote Petrochemicals Refinery in Lagos will upon completion, meet national consumption demands for gasoline (fuel), diesel, aviation fuel and kerosene.
Group Executive Director of Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin, disclosed this Saturday, while hosting a group of business executives from the Lagos Business School (LBS) who visited the refinery site at Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
According to Edwin, currently, “99% of demand of gasoline is met by import.”
He said the Dangote Refinery is therefore “investing about $12 billion in this project because the complex will meet 100% of the requirement of the country in terms of gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and kerosene and we will have substantial quantity to export.”
On the quality of products to come of the refinery, Edwin was confident that they would be world class. He admitted that sub-standard products already flood the Nigerian market but assured that the Dangote Refinery would operate above board.
“As you must be aware, most the products today being imported into Nigeria are not of the proper standard.
“The current standard approved not only i Nigeria but across Sub-Saharan Africa, is a grade called ‘Afri3’ whereas Europe has gone to ‘Euro4’ and now they have move to ‘Euro5’.
“Our products, whatever we are producing, are already tuned to match ‘Euro5. So these products can be exported to Europe, US and anywhere else in the world,” the Group Executive Director assured.
Meanwhile, the President of Dangote Industries, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who also engaged the visiting business executives, was optimistic that the refinery will transform Nigeria’s economy.
“Everything we are doing here is basically to transform the Nigerian economy. And it is not only to transform, but to also diversify our economy from single commodity market. We are taking a bold step through this petrochemical project to create values that would help us to achieve this aim,” he said.
Dangote insisted that until the country fully diversifies its economy, it would find it difficult to fully break away from economic uncertainties like recession.
According to him, “I believe that until Nigeria diversifies its economy, we would be coming out of one problem to the other, because the economy cannot rely on oil alone.
“We are investing heavily in agriculture and this is one area people don’t understand, the impact of farming on the economy. Ethiopia, as a country, depends largely on agriculture and grows its economy. Its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) did not collapse unlike what we experience in Nigeria, which largely depends on oil.
“This is a lesson for us. Agriculture is expanding and we have no choice than to implement major restructuring and diversification of the economy,” Dangote advised.
The Dangote Refinery is set for completion in 2019 and will feature one of the largest single train petroleum refinery (650,000 bpd), Africa’s largest fertilizer/urea plant (3ml tonnes per annum), one of the largest Sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in the globe (1,100kms to handle 3 billion scurves of gas per day), world class gas treatment station, world class petrochemical complex and 520mw power plant in refinery & fertilizer complex.
