Dangote refinery has promised to save Nigeria from the continuous fuel importation, thereby appreciating naira in global market when the production begins in 2020.
The construction of the 650.000 barrels of crude oil per day is to help the country save over $7.5 billion through import substitution.
Dangote Executive Director, strategy and Capital project, Devakumar Edwin while addressing newsmen after facility tour in Lagos, said the refinery project will put Nigeria on the global map as major Oil and gas hub in Africa Continent.
Edwin who oversees the project, said Nigeria is currently importing large amount of its petroleum products due to the inability of refineries to utilize full capacity.
According to him, “Dangote is currently building the World largest Single Line Refinery, Petrochemical Complex and the World second largest Urea fertilizer plant. This continuous importation of petroleum products has caused undue pressure on the nation’s external reserves and induce depreciation of the naira”.
He explained that the Petrochemical plant will produce 780 KTPA polyprophlene, 500 KTPA of polyethylene while the fertilizer project will produce 3.0 million metric tonnes per annum of Urea.
“Ninety-five percent of engineering has been completed, 90 percent of procurement has been completed.”
“We started civil works in July last year and we have scheduled 2-1/2 years for mechanical completion,”
The 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery near Lagos, is Africa’s biggest, and is expected to turn Nigeria from an importer of refined products into an exporter, transforming global trade patterns.
The fertilizer plant is the largest in West Africa and by 2020.Nigeria population would be about 207 million at the same time the production will tentatively begin in August as demand for food consumption will be very high in 2020″ he added.
TheDangote Executive Director stated that the project would help Nigeria create a robust domestic refining sector that will reduce petroleum products imports and save the country from capital flight.
“Our petroleum refinery is going to have a major beneficial impact on the economy in terms of foreign exchange savings. The biggest consumers like China and India have reduced their demand because they could get similar products. With the refine capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the refinery will give an assured market for the Nigerian crude.”
Edwin who had earlier given account of the Corporate Social Responsibility CSR to the host communities noted that gas from gas pipeline will augment the natural domestic gas supply with additional estimate of 12,000MW of power generation which can be added to the grid.
He said the primary objective of the refinery project is to generate more employment, reduces fuel importation and save the country from foreign exchange.
The facility tour which was led by the Dangote Executive Director and his team has in attendance NIPR leadership, Chairman, Lagos NUJ Dr Qasim Akinreti, VON Director News, Mr. Austeen Elewodalu, GM Radio One, Mr Korede Ogunbunmi among other journalists.
