By Chisaa Okoye (Business Reporter)
Expectations are high that the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, scheduled for commissioning soon would yield an estimated $21 billion yearly for Nigeria.
According to a fact sheet on the refinery, the plant which is the world’s largest single-train 650,000 barrels per day petroleum refinery with 900 KTPA polypropylene plant, is billed for commissioning by the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari on May 22.
Built by billionaire industrialist and philanthropist, Aliko Dangote, the refinery plant is a legacy project that will see Nigeria netting 21 billion dollars per annum.
The fact sheet also also showed that the refinery, located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares (seven times the size of Victoria Island), can meet 100 per cent 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 exporexpot.l
The refinery, according to the fact sheet, is laced with 435 Mega Watts (MW) power plant, which is said to have capacity to meet the total power requirement of five states.
The facility has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litre capacity, while the temporary housing units on the premises can house 33,000 persons
The plant designed for 100% Nigerian crude with flexibility to process other crudes. Diesel and gasoline products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
For easy off-take of products, the plant is constructed with two quays with a load bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/ sq meter to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly. It 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 six quays, including a Roll-on/Roll-off quay.
Dangote Refinery 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.
Already, the company is training of 900 young engineers in refinery operations outside the country, while another six mechanical engineers were trained in the GE University in Italy. Also, 50 process engineers have been trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months; and 50 management trainees.