President Muhammadu Buhari will today, Monday, commission the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals.
According to a Twitter statement by the Dangote Group, the refinery will be churning out Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), diesel (AGO), aviation jet fuel and Dual-Purpose Kerosene (DPK), among other refined products.
The launch of the refinery is billed to take place in Lagos.
Speaking about the giant plant, the CEO Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Sanjay Gupta, stated that “everything in this plant by way of size is the first. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world. “There is no single column which can process 650,000 barrels per day anywhere else”, he added.
The Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, in a tweet earlier in January, noted that the “Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical complex in Lekki sits on land that is more than 3 times the size of Victoria Island”. He added that the fertilizer plant was already producing.
The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical complex in Lekki sits on land that is more than 3 times the size of Victoria Island. Experts believe that the Dangote Refinery could help achieve macro-economic stability in Nigeria; however, they say it cannot eradicate all the problems in Nigeria’s oil sector.
The plant, which industry experts say it is arguably Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest simple-train facility, will no doubt create more employment opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming population.
And while the refinery is a game-changer for the nation’s troubled oil sector, one that will increase human, labour, and capital stock productivity, the experts say Nigeria needs to use its oil revenues wisely, to create a better future, especially as the world is moving toward renewable energy technologies.
