Dangote oil refinery to commence operations in 2018 

The management of Dangote Petrochemicals and Fertiliser Plant on Thursday assured Nigerians that its 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) capacity petroleum refinery will come on stream by 2018.

Madhav Kelkar, senior general manager, civil and structural, Dangote Petrochemicals Ltd, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, made the announcement when he took journalists a facility tour of the plant located at Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos.

He said when the refinery comes on stream; it would boost the country’s refining capacity and enhance industrialisation.

He said construction work on the projects was expected to be completed by 2017 while refining operation would commence by 2018, adding that the project would create job opportunities for Nigerians.

“The 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery will meet the 2018 deadline,” he said.

“As you can see, piling and land reclamation are going on. Sand filling is the most critical part of the project and a Belgium-based dredging company called Jande Nul is in charge of dredging and soil investigation.

“Assembly and coupling of equipment will take only a couple of months. I think we are making progress and I’m happy with what we have done so far.

“At the end of the day, every Nigerian will be very proud that we have the longest single train refinery in the world. That’s the vision of Dangote.’’

Kelkar said when the project is completed, Nigeria would be self sufficient in refining of crude oil.

He said more than 2,000 Nigerians would be employed when the refinery commence operations.

He said the petrochemical plant would produce 750,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per annum while the fertiliser plant would produce 2.8 metric tonnes of Urea and Ammonia.