Dipo Kehinde/
Nigeria’s foremost Industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote profusely expressed gratitude to the country’s president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for establishing the Lekki Free Trade Zone that has given birth to the biggest refinery in the world commissioned today by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was also appreciated for his support and encouragement.
“We must thank him (Tinubu) for his encouragement and foresight,” Dangote said.
Dangote made the commendations in the presence of African and Nigerian political and business leaders, including the presidents of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo; Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, Mahamat Déby of Chad, Macky Sall of Senegal and Mohamed Bazoum of Niger.
According to Dangote, the World’s largest single-train refinery built by his firm is a 650, 000 barrels per day capacity plant.
With an investment of over $20 billion dollars, the construction of the petroleum refinery and petrochemicals project which commenced in 2017 is regarded as the biggest private investment in Africa.
Speaking at the event, President Buhari described the project as “a milestone for our economy and a game changer”. He assured that Tinubu would sustain the growth of Nigeria’s economy.
While praising Dangote for the feat, the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele also celebrated Tinubu for his foresight. He congratulated Dangote and his team for what he described as “uncommon tenacity and unwavering commitment in completing this project, notwithstanding various challenges that they have faced.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Mele Kyari, described the commissioning of the project as a defining moment for the energy industry in Nigeria, for the African region and on the International scale.
“We are harnessing our resources to meet our own needs,” he said.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, told the gathering how Buhari, Tinubu, and Dangote had shared a common vision and purpose that has brought change and prosperity to Nigeria.
Sanwo-Olu said that history would judge Buhari well, adding that the commissioning would make it the 3rd time that the President would be visiting the Lekki Free Trade Zone.
He also described Dangote as a detribalized Nigerian and a true citizen of Lagos who came to the city 45 years ago with nothing from Kano and has today built the biggest business empire in the world for Africa.
According to the profile projected at the event, the facility, at full capacity, can meet 100% of Nigeria’s requirement of all refined products and have a surplus for export.
It is designed for 100% Nigerian Crude with the flexibility to process other crudes.
It has a self-sufficient marine facility with the ability for freight optimization, and it is the largest single order of 5 SPMs anywhere in the world.
Also, Diesel and gasoline from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications, and the refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms. It incorporates state-of-the-art technology, and it is designed to process a large variety of crudes including many African Crudes, some Middle Eastern Crudes, and the US Light Tight Oil.
During construction, there were about 65 million cubic meters of sand dredged, costing approximately €300 million, using the world’s largest dredgers. Over 1,200 units of various equipment were bought to enhance the local capacity for site works. Dangote Group bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity.
Also built is the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust & material for breakwater (10 million tonnes per year production capacity).
In a bid to bring over dimensional cargoes close to the site directly, Dangote Group had to develop a port and constructed two quays with a load-bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/sq. meter.
It constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export, and two quays to handle liquid cargoes. The port will have 6 quays, including a roll-on/roll-off quay.
In the course of the civil works, 700 piles were drilled on some days, with a total number of piles up to 250,000. It has 177 tanks with a 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.
Dangote Industries has trained 900 young engineers in refinery operations abroad. Mechanical Engineers were trained at the GE University in Italy, and process engineers were trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months.
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