The Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals was commissioned on May 22, 2024 by former president, Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos.

The refinery is a subsidiary of the Dangote Industries Limited.

The world’s largest single-train petroleum refinery, is headed by Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote and is estimated to produce 650,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is an industrial plant that transforms crude oil into various usable petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline (petrol), jet fuel, and kerosene.

What is happening to the Dangote refinery

The multi-billion dollar Dangote Petroleum Refinery is being put up for sale by the founder of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.

According to Mr Dangote, he is willing to sell the refinery to the state-owned energy company NNPC Limited, as they are accusing him of monopolizing the market.

Dangote said: “Let them (NNPCL) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can. They have labelled me a monopolist. That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s OK. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way.

“We have been facing fuel crisis since the 70s. This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture. So I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery.”

Recall that the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority (NMDPA), Farouk Ahmed stated that the diesel produced by the $20bn refinery is inferior to the ones imported into Nigeria.

Ahmed also told the Dangote refinery that the Nigerian government would continue to import petroleum products, because they cannot depend on one refinery to feed the nation.

Ahmed continued that the refinery has not been licensed, and was still at the pre-commissioning stage.

MyNigeria has gathered some interesting facts about the Dangote Refinery

1. The refinery is designed to process a large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes, and the US Light Tight Oil.

2. The refinery can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene & Aviation Jet) and have surplus of each of these products for export.

3. The refinery has its own dedicated steam and power generation system with adequate standby units for reliable/uninterrupted utility supply to operating plants.

4. It has a 435MW power plant that can meet the total power requirement of Ibadan Distribution Company, covering five states, including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, and Ekiti.

5. The refinery maximizes value addition - Extract maximum value from every barrel of crude.

6. The refinery is estimated to generate an annual market value of US $21 billion for Nigerian crude oil, foreign exchange savings/earnings of US $9.9 billion.

7. 56% of the production would be exported, with a foreign exchange generation of approximately $17 billion.

8. The refinery ensures over $25 billion addition to the GDP, through massive value addition within the country.

9.Dangote Industries developed a port and constructed quays with a load-bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/sq meters to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly to handle liquid cargoes.

10. The refinery has capabilities for both land and sea evacuation to serve both domestic and export markets

11. It is located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares.

12. The refinery is the world’s largest single train with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day with a 900 KTPA Polypropylene plant.

13. The refinery is powered by a 435-megawatt (MW) power plant.

14. The refinery is the largest single order of 5 single-point mooring (SPMs) anywhere in the world and it incorporates state-of-the-art technology.

15. Dangote industries built the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust and material for breakwater (10 million tons per year production capacity).

16. The refinery has 177 tanks of up 4.742 billion liters capacity.

17. Dangote is one of the few companies in the world executing a Petroleum refinery and a Petrochemical complex directly as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

18. The Dangote group has trained 900 young engineers in refinery operations abroad. Mechanical Engineers were trained in the GE University in Italy. Process Engineers were trained by Honeywell/Universal Oil Products (UOP) for six months.

19. Although it’s a 650,000 bpd facility, the refinery is set to produce at 370,000 bpd, according to Devakumar Edwin, an executive at the Dangote Group.

20. The refinery project was first announced in 2013 at an estimated cost of $9bn. By the time major structural construction began in 2017, the cost had ballooned to about $15bn.