Africa’s richest person, Aliko ?angote, has announced that Nigeria will cease importing petrol by June.
Speaking at the ‘Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit’ in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, Dangote revealed that his refinery will commence production next month, meeting Nigeria’s petrol needs and eliminating the need for imports.
He said, “Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart from gasoline and by sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of litre”.
The refinery will also produce diesel, aviation fuel, and other essential products, making Africa self-sufficient in these commodities. With a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the refinery will meet the demands of West Africa and beyond.
?angote emphasised that the refinery will not only focus on petroleum products but also produce polypropylene, polyethylene, base oil, and linear benzyl, raw materials essential for producing detergents and other products. This, he said, will reduce Africa’s reliance on imports and make the continent self-sufficient in these critical products.
?angote expressed his optimism that within three to four years, Africa will no longer need to import fertilizers, as his refinery will produce urea, potash, and phosphate, meeting the continent’s needs.
The refinery’s second phase is set to begin early next year, further expanding its operations and impact on Africa’s energy landscape.
TotalEnergies strikes supply deal with Dangote on Nigerian Refinery
French energy major, TotalEnergies, has struck its first supply deal with Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said on Friday, following a meeting with Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
“We met this morning, we made the first deal between both of us,” Pouyanne told a panel at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda. “The two CEOs met with our head of trading and we found the way to convince them to make a deal,” he added.
Dangote has been trying to secure crude supplies for the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, the largest in Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.
In May, the company put out a tender for two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude every month for a year starting in July, a tender document seen by Reuters showed.
The oil refinery, which started production in January, cost $20 billion to build. Dangote aims to reverse Nigeria’s reliance on imports for fuel and other refined products even though the country is Africa’s biggest oil producer.
Dangote said the refinery had enough gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel to supply the African continent and export to Brazil.
The next phase of the refinery will start early next year, Dangote said.
TotalEnergies is one of the major producers of crude in Nigeria alongside Shell,
