Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to join other global oil and gas players to officially commission the Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest crude oil refinery at Lekki Free Zone, Lagos State, today, Monday.
The refinery, situated on 6,180 acres (2,500 hectares), is currently the world’s largest single-train refinery and will produce as much as 650,000 barrels of crude per day.
Its pipeline infrastructure is the largest anywhere in the world, with 1,100 kilometres to handle three billion Standard Cubic Feet per day (Scf/d) of gas due to the large capacity of the refinery.
The refinery is expected to help Nigeria to address its fuel issues.
The refinery had an initial price tag of $12 billion but ended up costing $19 billion as it ran into delays.
Processing is scheduled to begin in June, although, according to Energy Aspect it could begin later in the year, and it would ramp up gradually to full capacity by 2025.
The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Comrade Festus Osifo, is convinced that the coming onstream of Dangote Refinery would cut the importation of petroleum products by NNPC Limited.
He said with the refinery, there would be an impact on the fuel subsidy dynamics.
“We welcome the bold move by operators of Dangote Refinery coming on stream soon and hope that its addition will enhance local production, reduce products importation, as well as end the era of uncertainties in petroleum products pricing and evils of subsidy payment,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State government has advised residents to plan their movements around the Lekki-Epe corridor ahead of the inauguration of the refinery.
Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde stated at Ikeja that residents should particularly plan their movements in and out of the Lekki-Epe corridor between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
He stated that the advice became necessary to forestall avoidable delays while travelling as high vehicular movement was expected in the area because of the inauguration.
Oladeinde stressed that Lagos State Traffic Management Authority and other traffic regulation personnel had been directed to ensure effective management and smooth traffic in the area.
He appealed to motorists and other road users to cooperate with the state government to ensure seamless traffic flow during the period.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com