DANGOTE Refinery says it plans to double its workforce as it targets 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) capacity from 700,000 bpd by 2029.
Mr Devakumar Edwin, Group Vice President, Oil and Gas and Fertiliser, Dangote Industries Ltd., disclosed this during a tour of the refinery by newsmen in Lagos on Friday.
Edwin said basic engineering for the expansion had been completed, with almost all detailed engineering work also concluded.
He said most equipment had been ordered, while major contracts had been signed and advance payments made to contractors.
“We are targeting for three years, and probably we may be even doing faster,” he said.
According to him, the expansion will cost slightly less than the first phase because key supporting infrastructure, including the quarry, welding-gas plant, port facility and developed land, is already available.
Edwin said the company was also negotiating lower engineering and design costs, as much of the expansion would replicate existing facilities.
He, however, said additional petrochemical facilities would raise the overall cost of the project.
Edwin said the refinery, originally designed for 650,000 bpd, was currently operating at about 700,000 bpd, while a tour guide said its crude distillation unit had been tested at about 710,000 bpd.
He said the refinery was designed to process a wide range of crude grades, including most African crude grades and U.S. West Texas Intermediate, to reduce dependence on Nigerian crude.
“We have designed it to have a wider range of crudes which can be processed in the refinery,” he said.
Edwin said the flexibility was necessary because much of Nigeria’s crude had initially been committed under existing obligations.
He said the refinery was also configured to maximise petrol output in line with Nigeria’s consumption pattern, with petrol accounting for 53 per cent of its production capacity, compared with about 22 per cent in conventional Nigerian refineries.
“We designed it in such a way that 95 per cent of our production is high-value, either petrol or diesel or jet fuel,” he said.
He said the remaining five per cent comprised lower-value industrial products, adding that the refinery was designed to produce Euro 5 and Euro 6-standard petroleum products for domestic and international markets.
According to him, the refinery currently exports petrol, aviation fuel and diesel to markets in the United States, Europe and other regions.
Edwin said the expansion would also increase petrochemical production, including linear alkyl benzene, base oil and polypropylene.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) observed during the tour that relatively few personnel were deployed around the refinery’s operating units, which a guide attributed to the facility’s high level of automation.
He said more than 70 per cent of the refinery was automated, with major processing units controlled from the main control room.
NAN also observed that work on the expansion was underway within the refinery complex.
The tour covered the central laboratory, Main Control Room, gantry and other processing units, as well as loading bays and storage tanks for crude, intermediate products and finished petroleum products.
NAN reports that the expansion comes as Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals seeks to raise about ₦2.15 trillion through an ongoing initial public offering (IPO), with proceeds expected to fund the capacity expansion. (NAN)
