Hare. Nigeria’s massive oil refinery built by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has received its first crude deliveries, the company said on Saturday, in the latest step to start the delayed mega project.
Billed as the largest of its kind in Africa, the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery could be a game-changer for Nigeria’s economy when fully operational, helping to end the country’s dependence on fuel imports.
Dangote Petroleum refinery received an initial shipment of one million barrels of crude from the Agbami deepwater field and started loading on Friday, the company’s spokesman said on Saturday.
The initial operation will be for diesel and jet fuel production before moving on to gasoline production.
Dangote did not give a date for the actual start of production of the refinery.
Although one of Africa’s largest oil producers and the continent’s leading economy, Nigeria relies almost entirely on imported fuel and diesel due to a lack of refining capacity.
Nigeria is swapping billions of dollars worth of crude oil for gasoline it had subsidized for years to keep prices cheap for its domestic market.
Fuel imports and subsidies caused a huge foreign exchange drain when Nigeria was struggling with declining oil revenues and foreign exchange shortages.
“The Dangote Oil Refinery can meet 100 percent of Nigeria’s requirements for all refined products, gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel, and also have a surplus of each of these products for export,” the company said in a statement.
The facility is located on 2,635 hectares (6,500 acres) of land in the Lekki Free Zone on the outskirts of Lagos city and cost about $19 billion, according to local media.
The refinery, which was scheduled to open for the first time in 2021, was officially inaugurated by then President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year and was due to start operations in June.
Since taking office in May, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ended the long-standing fuel subsidy and channeled the naira currency into economic reforms he says will attract foreign investment and create long-term growth.
The former Lagos governor has called on Nigerians to be patient with his reform agenda as the initial impact has seen soaring fuel prices, a sharp drop in the value of the naira and an increase in the cost of living.