African government asking Dangote to complete refinery before 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria — The federal government in Africa has said it relies heavily on the Dangote refinery to fulfill its promise to Nigerians to end fuel importation by December 2019.
To this end, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, who visited the Dangote oil refinery site at Lekki Free Trade Zone, in Lagos, said the government is ready to play its part as a responsible government to assist in making sure the project is completed before the scheduled date.
The minister, who said he was overwhelmed by the dimension of the project, explained that the present government had always believed that the private sector holds the ace in industrialization efforts of the government, and noted that the belief has been reinforced by what Dangote Group is doing.
“I have made very firm commitment to Nigerians that I must stop the importation of petroleum products by 2019 and I am going to keep to it. It is absolutely important that we do this early and given the feat that we have achieved in terms of speed of construction and I urge you to do all within you to achieve its completion before the due date,” Mr. Kachikwu said.
In response to the government’s challenge, Dangote said they have accepted the challenge and would do all possible to achieve the feat.
Earlier in his welcome address, Dangote explained that his group is building the world’s largest single line refinery, petrochemical complex, and the world’s second largest urea fertilizer plant. The refinery, according to the company, will have the capacity to refine 650,000 bpd of crude oil. The petrochemical plant will produce 780 Mtpy Polypropylene, 500 Mtpy of Polyethylene, while the fertilizer project will produce 3.0 MMmtpy of Urea.
“We will be adding value to our economy as all these projects will be creating about 4,000 direct and 145,000 indirect jobs. We will also save over $7.5 B for Nigeria annually, through import substitution and generate an additional $5.5 B/yr through exports of the refined petroleum products, fertilizer and petrochemicals. We envisage that these projects, which would cost over $18 B, would be completed in 2019,” the company stated in a press release.
Comments