Failure of Public Refineries

In view of the epileptic supply of petroleum products in Nigeria, which has inflicted great pains  on Nigerians,  it's  expect that a rapid improvement in the supply of cheaper petroleum products in the country will follow this inauguration by President Buhari.

Over the years, during times of unexplained scarcities Nigerians have slept at petrol stations queing for fuel.   Kerosene has become unaffordable commodity even for city people.

Ironically, Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer in the world, with over one million barrels of oil daily, but cannot refine fuel for local consumption. 

Paradoxically, crude is exported to outside Nigeria, where it is refined and later returned to the  country  as refined petroleum products. This importation operates in a regime of subsidy that has attracted suspicion among Nigerians as well as scathing remarks bothering on government accountability. 

Between January and August 2022 for instance, NNPC Limited in a statement by its group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen Muhammad, said it imported a total volume of 16.46 billion litres of petroleum into the country.

The company said, this translated to an average supply of 68 million litres per day.

NNPC said the various cost elements translated into a retail pump price of N462 per litre, and that the subsidy payment of N297 aimed at making the product affordable for Nigerians.

Hope Rises

Expectation is high that this singular project will improve lives and be a definite game changer in Nigeria's sorry story of crude oil exploration and refining.

Given Dangote's successful business track records, the newly inaugurated refinery is hoped to address the needs of Nigerians in this sector. Indeed, Nigerians  will have no need to read about humongous amouts dedicated to endless turn around maintenance of unproductive state-owned refineries.

Facts about Dangote Refinery 

Dangote Group released facts about its petroleum refinery and here are the takeaways:

When fully operational, the refinery can meet 100% of Nigeria’s refined products requirement.

The refinery can refine crude types from Africa, the Middle East and the United States of America.

The refinery has capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export, two quays to handle liquid cargoes. 

The port will have six quays, including a roll on/roll off quay.

It has 177 tanks of up 4.742 billion liters capacity.

Dangote is one of the few companies in the world executing a petroleum refinery and a petrochemical complex directly as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

The refinery has trained 900 young engineers in refinery operations abroad. 

Mechanical Engineers were trained in the GE University in Italy. Process Engineers were trained by Honeywell/Universal Oil Products (UOP) for six months.