Dangote Refinery has secured its first cargo deal of about 6 million barrels, ready for delivery, even as the much-anticipated project begins with 350,000 barrels a day next month, founder Aliko Dangote has disclosed.
The refinery is expected to transform oil trading in the Atlantic Basin and remove a lucrative outlet for fuels produced in Europe and the United States that have for years powered the cars, trucks, and generators on the continent.
According to sources, the refinery would start churning out diesel, kerosene, and jet fuel as soon as December.
Speaking with the Financial Times, Dangote, who described Nigeria’s inability to refine its crude oil as “shameful,” despite being a major oil producer for more than 50 years, said the country will, in a matter of weeks, start producing refined petroleum products again.
Dangote, who conceded there were times when he thought the massive project—long delayed and about $8 billion over budget—might jeopardize his business empire, expressed gratitude to God for delivering the multi-billion-dollar project at last, despite many challenges.
He said, “The challenges that we faced, I don’t know whether other people can face these challenges and even survive. It’s either we sink or we sail through. And we thank Almighty that at least we’ve arrived at the destination. You will not see this kind of project in Nigeria in the next 20 years. No outside contractor had been willing to take on Nigerian risk. We didn’t cut costs. We didn’t cut corners. We didn’t do it for people to clap us. We did it for posterity.”
