Former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Dangote Petroleum Refinery on Monday 22nd May, 2023 in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos. The inauguration witnessed the presence of bigwigs, industry players, and presidents of African countries, who gathered to witness the unveiling of a $19 billion facility, set to revolutionise crude oil refining in Africa.
The landmark inauguration comes a decade after Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest businessman, announced plans for the refinery in September 2013, when he secured about $3.3 billion in financing for the project.
It also comes after efforts to begin production at the facility failed twice: the first time was in October 2019 when a top official said the project would be ready in 2021.
The second time was in January when Dangote said the refinery would begin processing crude by the third quarter of 2022.
In this article, we will be sharing with you 27 facts and records you need to know about Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
1. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is a World Class Project.
2. The Refinery is located in Dangote Industries Free Zone Development Company (DIFZDC), Lekki Coastal Road, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares (seven times the size of Victoria Island).
3. World’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900 KTPA Polypropylene Plant.
4. The 435 MW Power Plant in the Refinery alone will be able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo of 860,316 MWh covering five States including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti.
5. Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (Gasoline, 53 million litres per day; Diesel, 34 litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet, 2 million litres per day) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.
6. Designed for 100% Nigerian Crude with flexibility to process other crudes.
7. Self-sufficient Marine facility with ability for freight optimization. Largest single order of 5 SPMs anywhere in the world.
8. Diesel & Gasoline Products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
9. The refinery design complies to World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission / effluent norms.
10. State- of- the-art technology.
11. Designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes and the US Light Tight Oil.
12. Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene & Aviation Jet) and also would have surplus of each of these products for export.
13. 65 Million Cubic Metres of Sand dredged costing approx. Euros 300 Million, using the world’s largest, the second largest and the tenth largest dredgers to elevate the height by 1.5 metres, to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.
14. Bought over 1,209 units of various equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works since even the biggest local civil contractors are unable to handle even small portions of our construction requirement.
15. Bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity since the current capacity in Nigeria is extremely poor.
16. Built the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust & material for break water. (10 million tonnes per year production capacity).
17. Developed a port and constructed two quays with a load bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/ sq meter to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly.
18. Constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export the fertiliser and the petrochemicals and two quays to handle liquid cargoes. The port will thus have 6 quays, including a Roll-on/Roll-off quay.
19. In the course of the civil works, some days 700 piles were drilled daily, and the total number of piles came to 250,000.
20. It has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litre capacity.
21. Total tanker loading of 2,900. This number is based on tanker capacity of 33KL.
22. 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. Globally, apart from three companies, no individual owner has done the complete EPC Contract for a Petroleum Refinery.
23. Temporary housing units on the premises can house 33,000 persons.
24. The project utilised the coordination of various local and international suppliers and the coordination of multi-cultural work teams.
25. The Dangote Refinery Plant is a legacy project that will see Nigeria netting 21 billion dollars per annum.
26. Training of 900 young engineers in refinery operations outside the country. Another six Mechanical Engineers trained in the GE University in Italy. 50 Process engineers trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months; 50 Management Trainees; secondment for succession.
27. The refinery was originally intended to be built in the oil-producing state of Ondo, but due to a lack of political will from the Ondo State Government, Dangote moved the project to Lagos state, which also has oil.
