The plant, being built by Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Group and which will use Nigerian crude, was previously set to come on stream in 2020. But officials said the construction will be complete by end-2020 and the plant will be operational by early-2021.
This is even as the federal government has pledged support towards its quick completion.
“The refinery will be ready early in 2021 and we hope to reach full capacity before the end of that year,” Devakumar Edwin, an executive director at Dangote said.
Edwin said the refinery will “dedicate 53%” of the projected 650,000 b/d refining capacity to the production of gasoline. Nigeria is dependent on fuel imports for all its gasoline needs.
“We target to export surplus products from the refinery including petrol and diesel to Europe, South America and West African countries,” Edwin said.
The project received most of its key refining units such as the columns that make up the plant’s crude distillation unit reactor, regenerator and fluid catalytic cracker earlier this year.
The refinery will significantly reduce Nigeria’s fuel imports and could cap the country’s crude exports.
Representatives at Dangote Industries have previously said the plant would start up in 2020, though the target has repeatedly been pushed back.
The plant was previously slated to come on stream by the first quarter of 2019. Construction began in 2013.
Meawhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has pledged support of the federal government towards ensuring the completion of the historic 650,000 BPD Dangote Petroleum Refinery during an official visit to the petrochemical complex located at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, Monday.
He said: “This is a very heartwarming moment for all of us as Nigerians. There is no way a project of this magnitude will be going on and government will not be interested. Anywhere in the world, if a citizen of a country has committed so much money into investing in this kind of massive project, government must show interest.
“I must say now that Dangote Group has turned this project to the story of all of us, we must all support this project to succeed, because the success of this project signals a lot. Of course, I am sure that the whole world is looking at the success of this project. Investors all over the world will look at the success of this project and will come to Nigeria to at least also enjoy the benefit of investing here. So, we are actually here to assure you, Dangote Group, that as a government, as NNPC, we will support this project as much as we can. You have definitely done very well.”
NNPC GMD, Mr Mele Kyari, said “We are not competing with Dangote but complimenting each other to boost production capacity. Our objective is the same, to make Nigeria a net exporter of crude. We can’t do this until we have complementary activities between the private sector and government.”
In his remarks, Aliko Dangote, Group President and Chief Executive, Dangote Group said ” We believed in Nigeria and if we don’t do it ourselves, nobody will come down to do it for us. There is three per cent growth population increase annually in Nigeria, so, apart from that Nigeria are supposed to meet the needs of West, East and Central Africa in terms of supply.”
