Insights: 20 Key Facts about the Dangote Refinery.

By Olaye David

Nigeria's long-awaited milestone has arrived as Africa's largest oil refinery commences production. The $19 billion facility, boasting a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has initiated the production of diesel and aviation fuel, marking a significant development for a region highly dependent on imported petroleum products.

Described as a game-changer for Nigeria, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery stands as the country's inaugural privately owned oil refinery.

Here are 20 facts everyone should know about the inaugural private refinery in Nigeria.

• It is located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares.
• The refinery is the world’s largest single train with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day with a 900 KTPA Polypropylene plant.
• The refinery is powered by a 435-megawatt (MW) power plant.
• At full capacity, it can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products and also have a surplus for exports.
• Designed for 100% Nigerian crude with the flexibility to process other crudes.
• Self-sufficient marine facility with the ability for freight optimization. Largest single order of 5 single-point mooring (SPMs) anywhere in the world.
• Diesel and gasoline from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
• The refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms.
• Incorporates state-of-the-art technology.
• Designed to process a large variety of crudes, including many African crudes, some Middle Eastern crudes, and the US Light Tight Oil.
• 65 million cubic meters of sand dredged, costing approximately €300 million, using the world’s largest dredgers.
• Bought over 1,200 units of various equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works.
• Bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity.
• Built the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust, and material for breakwater (10 million tons per year production capacity).
• Developed a port and constructed two quays with a load-bearing capacity of 25 tons/square meter to bring over dimensional cargoes close to the site directly.
• Constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export, and two quays to handle liquid cargoes. The port will have six quays, including a roll-on/roll-off quay.
• In the course of the civil works, 700 piles were drilled on some days, with a total number of piles up to 250,000.
• It has 177 tanks of up to 4.742 billion liters capacity.
• 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.
• Trained 900 young engineers in refinery operations abroad. Mechanical Engineers trained at the GE University in Italy. Process Engineers trained by Honeywell/Universal Oil Products (UOP) for six months.

Former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the plant on 22 May 2023, which is Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world's biggest single-train facility.

*Culled from February Issue of PAV Magazine