Over N600bn Petrol, Others in Our Tanks to Meet Local Demands—Dangote

Mr Dangote built the Dangote Petroleum Refinery believed to be worth about $20 billion in Lagos to serve the local and international markets.

Speaking when he welcomed a Zambian government delegation to the facility over the weekend, the businessman said the oil refinery has “more than half a billion litres of petroleum and over N600 billion worth of products like gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirements.”

According to him, “This refinery is not only for Nigeria; it is for Africa. We must sustain the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deal. We are trying to see how we trade with other African countries.”

Also commenting, the Vice President of DIL, Mr Edwin Devakumar, said the refinery produces the best quality products as its core business strategy.

“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,” Mr Edwin stated.

“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.

“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 added.

On his part, the leader of the delegation, Mr Makozo Chikote, who is the Minister of Energy, said his country was ready to partner with Mr Dangote to make its energy and other sectors more competitive.

“In Zambia, we created an environment for the private sector to participate in the growth and development of our country. Currently, 100 per cent of our petroleum is done by the private sector.

“We are targeting increased productivity in mining, agriculture, and other sectors. Your presentation is an immediate solution to our energy needs. We are trying to promote competition among our private players

“We are looking at Dangote coming on board, which would lead to efficient, reliable, quality, and competitive products, and we want these done like yesterday.

“Coming to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, we have learned so many advantages of bringing many players for competition, which has improved the lives of the citizens.

“From what we have seen, we need to promote trade within Africa to promote each other. We need these countries together to make Africa efficient, and a reliable trade hub.

“We have seen here that we can learn from what Dangote has done, and this would lead Africa and Africans to stand on their feet and not depend on overseas support in terms of trade. I believe going forward that people have learned a few lessons. The one lesson I have learned from this visit is that Dangote looks at the bigger picture for Africa,” the Minister noted.

Another member of the Zambia delegation, Mr Samuel Maimbo, who is the Vice President of Budget, Performance Review, and Strategic Planning at the World Bank Group, presently campaigning for the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), explained that there is not enough development aid to develop Africa.

“There is also not enough government funding to develop Africa. The only way we can finance Africa’s growth at a pace and scale that solves our problem is by working through the private sector, which is why we are here today, to learn and to see what an ambitious programme looks like,” he stated.