The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has announced that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery currently holds over 500 million litres of petrol in storage. He stated that the refinery now produces enough fuel to meet Nigeria’s local demand and support exports.
Dangote disclosed this during a tour of the $20 billion Lekki-based facility with Zambia’s Minister for Energy, Makozo Chikote. The Zambian minister visited the $20 billion refinery in Lekki, Lagos, to explore collaboration on addressing Zambia’s energy security challenges.
Speaking during the tour, Dangote revealed that the refinery currently holds N600 billion worth of stock in its tank farm. He added that the facility is on track to reach its full production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by next month, emphasizing that Nigeria’s local consumption accounts for less than half of its refined output.
Dangote stated that the refinery currently holds over half a billion litres of petrol in storage, adding that it is producing sufficient refined products including gasoline, diesel, and kerosene to meet Nigeria’s domestic demand fully. Dangote disclosed that efforts are underway to secure sufficient crude oil to support the refinery’s production expansion, ensuring it reaches full operational capacity by next month.
The Zambian Energy Minister emphasized the country’s commitment to fostering private sector participation in its economic growth, highlighting that Zambia’s petroleum sector is entirely managed by private entities.
He noted that boosting productivity in key sectors like mining and agriculture remains a priority and described the Dangote Refinery as an immediate solution to Zambia’s energy needs. He also stressed the importance of competition in ensuring efficiency, reliability, and affordability in the energy market, expressing keen interest in partnering with Dangote to enhance Zambia’s energy landscape.
He emphasized the need to strengthen intra-African trade, stating that collaboration among African nations is key to building a more efficient and self-sustaining economy.
He noted that the Dangote Refinery serves as a model for industrial development, demonstrating Africa’s potential to reduce reliance on external support. He expressed confidence that the visit had provided valuable insights, reinforcing the importance of regional cooperation in driving economic growth and trade independence.
The Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, Edwin Devakumar, stated that delivering top-quality products is a key focus of the refinery’s business strategy. Edwin said “The project concept was to process the crude from Nigeria and add value. But we also wanted to provide some flexibility to process most of the African crudes and some of the Middle Eastern crudes. In another concept, what we did was maximum value extraction. That is a process where every barrel of crude which goes in, the value addition should be the best.”
According to Edwin, “The Refinery can meet all our requirements. 44 per cent can meet the entire requirements of Nigeria, and 56 per cent of the production would be exported. Every day, we produce lighter products of 104 million litres; 57 million litres of petrol every day; 20 million litres of jet fuel; and 27 million litres of diesel production. The local consumption is just around 46 million litres, and the remaining 58 million litres will be exported daily,” he stated.
