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Dangote plans $12bn private crude oil refinery in Nigeria by 2019

Dangote plans $12bn private crude oil refinery in Nigeria by 2019

Nigeria

Nigeria, a major oil producer in Africa is set to get its first private crude oil refinery thanks to the efforts of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Dangote in an interview with Reuters disclosed that the refinery, estimated to cost some $12 billion, would have the capacity of 650,000 barrels of oil per day.

“It will be ready in the first quarter of 2019, mechanical completion will be end of 2018 but we will start producing in 2019,” the billionaire founder of Dangote Cement said of the refinery.

Africa's richest man, Dangote, has shifted focus from cement to oil & gas, plans 2 launch Nigeria's first private crude oil refinery by 2019

— NBS Television (@nbstv) June 24, 2016

According to him, the plant will include a $2 billion fertilizer unit, was being funded through “loans, export credit agencies and our own equity,” adding that about $3.25 billion had come from local and foreign banks, while the central bank had also chipped in. The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, has lent $150 million.

Even though Nigeria until recently, Nigeria was Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, the continent’s most populous nation imports 80 percent of its fuel. Poor maintenance has also resulted in a situation where its four refineries never reach full output.

According to the International Energy Agency, current daily fuel consumption is 260,000 barrels. The country has been bedeviled by fuel shortages in recent times, the militancy in Niger Delta region has further complicated matters.

Despite the new oil and gas investment focus, the the Dangote group still maintains plans to build cement plants in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia by 2018. Another plant will open in Congo Republic by September this year.

Giving an update on the cement businesses for which he is reputed, he revealed that a cement plant in Ivory Coast would triple output to 3 million tonnes, up from an initial target of 1 million, with two new plants in Nigeria adding 6 million tonnes annually.

“As at now, what we have in operation is almost about 45 million tonnes, so we have just another 40 million tonnes to go,” he said, affirming an Africa-wide production target of 85 million tonnes a year by 2018.

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