Dangote opens refinery, first products to hit market July, August

The billionaire businessman expresses his desire to eliminate Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum products.

Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa and also the President of Dangote Industries Limited, has annouced that his company’s newly lauched refinery will put out its first products before the end of “July or the beginning of August” this year.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals on Monday, Dangote emphasised the company is committed to producing quality products for Nigerians.

Dangote also emphasised his desire to eliminate Nigeria’s reliance on imported petroleum products, which he believes has caused substandard and toxic products to make their way to the Nigerian Market.

Hence, his company’s first primary objective is to increase production capacity to fulfil the country’s demand for standard products within this year.

“Beyond this, we intend to ensure that our plants are run at the highest capacity of utilisation and the highest efficiency to enable us to export competitively to other markets, especially in the ECOWAS and wider regions in which 53 countries out of 55 are dependent on imports to meet their petroleum products demand,” he added.

The refinery is expected to produce a range of refined products, such as Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), diesel, and Dual-Purpose Kerosene (DPK).