Dangote refinery among busiest construction sites globally —Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant as one of the busiest construction sites in the world.

The minister made this observation over the weekend in Lagos after a facility tour of the Dangote Fertilizer plant, adjoining Jetty on Lekki Sea Port and the Dangote Refinery.

According to him, after visiting the facilities, one can conveniently say that Dangote is leading Nigeria’s industrial revolution. 

He said such massive industrial complexes as the Dangote Fertilizer Company and the Refinery were made possible by the enabling environment provided by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He expressed delight that new businesses are springing up in all sectors around the area, adding that this was made possible by a conducive business environment in Nigeria.

He further disclosed that under the current administration, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) had implemented over 150 reforms, moving Nigeria up 39 places on the World Bank Doing Business index since 2016. 

He added that the President also signed the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA 2020), which he described as Nigeria’s most significant business legislation in three decades.

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His words: “The result of this favourable business environment is the birth of new businesses such as the $2.5 billion Dangote Fertilizer Plant that will produce 3 million metric tonnes of urea every year; the 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery due to open later this year; Lekki Deep Sea Port, one of the most modern sea ports in West Africa; BUA’s 3 million metric tonnes cement plant; and the 5,000 barrels per day Modular Refinery in Imo State, and three more modular refineries to be commissioned before May 2023 in Edo and Bayelsa states, just to mention a few.”

According to the minister, before the advent of the current administration in 2015, Nigeria had a fertilizer shortfall of about 3.5 million tonnes per annum but the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative launched by President Muhammadu Buhari, had helped indigenous companies like Indorama and Notore to attain a combined capacity of over 2.5 million tonnes per annum.

He added that with the coming on stream of the Dangote Fertilizer Plant, Nigeria had become self-sufficient in the production of urea.

He said, “The Dangote Fertilizer plant is already exporting to the US, India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. 

“We were fortunate to witness a ship being loaded with urea for export to Argentina. Based on what we have heard here today with regards to the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, officially known as the Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Plant, the refinery would be a game changer once it comes on stream in terms of employment generation.

“There will be huge value addition that will contribute to the increase in GDP, conservation of foreign exchange as there will be no more importation of petroleum products, generation of foreign exchange through export of finished product, availability of petroleum products thus ending petrol queues and attracting foreign capital investments,” he stated.

Available records show that investments in the fertiliser plant total $2.5 billion while total investment in the refinery is above $19 billion.

Conducting the minister and a team of journalists round the newly inaugurated Africa’s largest granulated urea fertilizer complex, Mr Devakumar Edwin, the Executive Director, Strategy Capital Projects and Portfolio Development, Dangote Group, expressed delight on the minister’s visit and revealed that the Group had already started export of urea to Mexico, Argentina and other parts of the world.

On the refinery, he explained that it has a total tanker loading facility of 2,900 for dispatch by road to areas that could not be delivered by marine facilities.

He also disclosed that the refinery has 20 crude storage tanks, each with a capacity of 120 million litres, totalling 2.4 billion litres storage capacity.

Edwin also disclosed that with the average of fewer than 400,000 litres of petroleum products needed in the country per day, 60 per cent of the production in the refinery would be available for local consumption while the remaining would be for export.

He said the end-of-the-year deadline for the inauguration and full take off of the single largest refinery in the world with 650,000 barrels per day capacity was sacrosanct.

According to him, the landfall point dredged in the Atlantic Ocean would allow ships loading crude oil to the refinery to berth and discharge for production.

He added that refined products from the refinery, including petrol, kerosene, diesel and aviation fuel, would also be loaded in ships at the landfall point for distribution to Warri, Port-Harcourt, Calabar and other Southern states.

Edwin said it would curtail the outdated and risky method of transporting petroleum products by tankers on roads to long distances.

Specifically, he said the dispatch facilities by marine for refined products from the refinery is 75 per cent while there were also available facilities for dispatch by roads.