President Muhammadu Buhari will inaugurate the Dangote Refinery on May 22nd – a week to the end of his eight years in office.
This was announced on Sunday by the President’s Special Assistant on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad on his Twitter handle.
“Efforts by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery, is set for inauguration on May 22nd, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari,” the tweet reads.
Efforts by the Federal Government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest… pic.twitter.com/b6KRHOuy12
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) May 7, 2023
The Dangote Refinery is a 650,000 barrels per day integrated refinery project located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone area of Lagos State, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares, which is larger than the entire Victoria Island.
It is expected to boost the Federal Government’s effort to make Nigeria self-sufficient.
The integrated refinery and petrochemical project is expected to generate 9,500 direct and 25,000 indirect jobs.
The project, which cost an estimated $19 billion, is Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility.
A single-train refinery uses an integrated distillation unit or one Crude Distillation Unit to refine crude oil into various petroleum products.
This is against the use of multiple distillation units by most big refineries.
Its output is expected to be more than enough to meet Nigeria’s fuel demands and turn Africa’s largest crude producer into an exporter of refined crude.
Last year, Aliko Dangote, chairman of the Dangote Group and Africa’s richest person, said his oil refinery would be commissioned before the end of Buhari’s tenure.
In June 2021, the Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari confirmed that the Federal Government would acquire a 20 percent equity stake in the Dangote Refinery.
Two months later, the Federal Executive Council approved $2.76 billion for the acquisition of a 20 per cent minority equity stake in the refinery.
