Billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote plans to roll out petrol from his $20 billion refinery next month, August, and list on the stock exchange in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025.
Dangote disclosed this at a press conference in Lagos on Sunday, saying the company will start selling petrol directly to marketers from August 2024. Dangote said the refinery will be fully operational in 2024 and will start refining intermediate products such as polypropylene, naphtha, RCO, petrol, diesel, and jet fuel.
He said the steady-state production phase of the refinery began in March 2024, with production ramping to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), 15 cargoes of crude oil per month by August, 550,000 barrels per day by the end of the year and 650,000 barrels per day by the first quarter of 2025.
“Petrol production is to commence in July with sales from August,” Dangote noted.
Dangote told senior journalists that the crude oil supply issue that affected the gasoline supply from the refinery was resolved last week following the intervention of the Federal Government.
He also announced plans to list the much-anticipated refinery and fertilizer plant on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) by the first quarter of 2025.
The decision to list the two subsidiaries comes at a time when the conglomerate is looking to widen its investor base and create more value for shareholders.
He also revealed that delays in securing land for the Dangote petrochemical facility in Ogun State had resulted in a loss of $500 million for his conglomerate.
Dangote attributes the economic stumbling block to the lengthy process of acquiring the Olokola land for the petrochemical plant, which has seen the company lose $500 million of its original $2.5 billion bank loan.
He was frustrated by bureaucratic roadblocks that have significantly impacted the project’s timeline and overall cost.
“The three years and eight months delay by the Ogun State government over Olokola land for the petrochemicals facility costs us $500m,” Dangote said.
He explained that the Dangote Group has invested a total of $25 billion in oil refineries and fertilizer plants over the past decade.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that foreign investors shunned Ogun, Osun, and 31 other states, while Lagos, FCT, and Ekiti attracted investors, with investments of $2.78 billion each in the first quarter of 2024. The FCT and Ekiti recorded $593.58 million and $12.7 million respectively.
Findings reveal that Dangote initially planned to build a petrochemical and refinery plant in the Olokola Free Trade Zone between Ondo and Ogun states. The plan was reportedly thwarted by unseen political forces for some reason. The then Lagos State government led by Governor Babatunde Fashola seized the golden opportunity and it became a reality. The commissioning of Africa’s largest refinery has transformed the conglomerate Dangote Group into a global construction site.
The gigantic refinery in Lekki, Lagos, has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day. This engineering marvel required unprecedented levels of infrastructure, logistics, and manpower, which Dangote said transformed the Dangote Group into a construction company overnight.
Dangote also said building the oil refinery was no walk in the park as the company faced many challenges that were not easy to overcome.
“The project’s immense scope necessitated the mobilisation of a vast workforce, the deployment of cutting-edge machinery, and the establishment of a robust supply chain. These operational demands pushed the Dangote Group to expand its construction capabilities exponentially, positioning it as a global leader in the field,” he said.
He said it was a matter of pride for Nigerian companies to have designed and built the world’s largest single-train refining complex while fulfilling engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts, noting that most refineries were built by foreign companies.
“Dangote is one of the few companies in the world executing a petroleum refinery and a petrochemical complex directly as an EPC contractor,” Dangote said at the press briefing. The Dangote refinery also includes a self-sufficient shipping facility capable of handling the world’s largest vessels.
“The refinery can produce the best quality products in the world, Euro V grade. It is one of the energy-efficient refineries and it is highly environmentally-friendly. It is sophisticated with a high level of automation. The largest single train refinery in the world is 100 percent designed, engineered, and constructed by a Nigerian company as EPC contractor,” he commented.
