Nigerian oil refinery expected in 2018

DANGOTE Group expects an oil refinery it is building in Nigeria to come on stream in late 2017 or the first half of 2018. The plant in the Lagos area would be able to process 500 000 barrels of crude a day, George Nicolaides, Dangote Industries’ operations director for petroleum refining, said at the Platts African Refining Summit in Cape Town yesterday. “The site is being cleared, the plant is being designed,” he said. “We are close to the beginning of detailed engineering.” In September last year, Dangote said it had agreed on a $3.3 billion (R36.5bn) loan with 12 Nigerian and foreign lenders to build the refinery, as well as a petrochemical and fertiliser complex costing a total of $9bn. At the time, the facility was expected to be completed in 2016 and the capacity of the refinery was put at 400 000 barrels a day. “We have a very ambitious construction schedule. I’m not sure about the history of those dates.” While Nigeria is Africa’s top producer of crude oil, it relies on fuel imports to meet more than 70 percent of its needs. Four state refineries with a combined capacity of 445 000 barrels a day are operating at a fraction of that. – Bloomberg