…Doubts if Nigeria’s plants’ll ever work
By Adewale Sanyaolu
In what many see as a bold bid to reshape Africa’s energy landscape, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is eyeing a regional expansion framework, assuring that it has the capacity to execute it.
Spokesman for the Dangote Group, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, disclosed this to Daily Sun in a telephone interview. He said the time for Africa to industralise has come, just as the time for the continent to be weaned off over-dependence on the western world is now.
“For the African continent to industrialise, we must put a stop to over-dependence on the western world. We cannot rely on them forever.”
Chiejina’s comments come as the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, recently told the Global Chief Executive Officer Africa group from Lagos Business School at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, that Nigeria’s long-troubled refineries may never return to full life even after sinking about $18 billion for their turnaround maintenance.
According to Chiejina, the vision of Aliko Dangote is to see Africa industrialise and reduce its dependence on the developed world. He said Dangote refinery has been able to prove capacity by building the single largest train refinery in the world.
“If we can achieve this by carrying out all procurement for the 650,000 barrels per day refinery, that tells you we can replicate the same in any part of Africa. Our capacity is not in doubt.”
On news making the rounds that the Dangote Refinery is planning a 1.6 million barrels storage tank in Namibia, Chiejina said; “Well, all I can say is that the management visited Namibia recently and that could have been part of the talks.
“But do you think if any African country invites us today to come and help them set up a refinery on agreed terms, we would say no?”
Reuters, last week, reported that Dangote petroleum refinery will construct storage tanks in Namibia to hold at least 1.6 million barrels of gasoline and diesel to supply refined fuel to southern Africa.
The move, according to the report, highlights the refinery’s ambition to dominate fuel supply in Africa and beyond, potentially reshaping energy trade flows in the region and boosting access to refined products for southern African nations.
The 650,000 barrels per day refinery, built at a cost of $20 billion by Dangote, started operations last year and has been ramping up production and seeking new markets.
Sources familiar with the development said the storage tanks would be used to supply gasoline and diesel to Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Dangote, it was gathered, was also considering supplying fuel to the Southern Democratic Republic of Congo, sources said.
Sources at Dangote did not respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear how much the project would cost, but it was gathered that the construction of the storage tanks would begin shortly in the port city of Walvis Bay.
A Namibia Ports Authority official confirmed the plans and said the storage tanks would be housed within the Walvis Bay harbour.
A source said last month that a Dangote gasoline cargo was heading to Asia, the first time the refinery was selling gasoline outside the West African region.
Dangote refinery says at full capacity, the plant would produce enough to meet demand in Nigeria, which has sharply cut imports of processed fuels and export the rest.
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