As the world’s largest single-train refinery, Dangote Petroleum Refinery reportedly commenced production from its 650,000 barrels per day capacity factory located in Lekki, Lagos on friday morning, President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has said that the refinery can load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck-loading gantries.
In a statement confirming the commencement of refining operations on Friday, Dangote Group’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Anthony Chiejina, stated that, “The refinery started production after receiving six million barrels of crude oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd”.
According to reports, Dangote Petroleum Refinery commenced production with the refining of diesel and aviation fuel.
Dangote who described this as a big day for Nigeria said, “We have started the production of diesel and aviation fuel, and the products will be in the market before the end of the month. We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone.”
According to him this is an important achievement for Nigeria as it demonstrates their ability to develop and deliver large capital projects.
“This is a game changer for our country, and I am very fulfilled with the actualisation of this project,” Dangote said, adding that the refinery has so far received six million barrels of crude oil at its two SPMs located 25 kilometres from the shore.
The first crude delivery, he said, was done on Dec. 12, 2023, while the 6th cargo was delivered on Jan. 8, 2024.
He added that the products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.
Dangote boss said that the refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms. State-of-the-art technology.
In the statement released to this effect by the Group on Friday, Dangote expressed profound gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for his support, encouragement and thoughtful advice towards the actualisation of the project.
“This production, as witnessed today, would not have been possible without his visionary leadership and prompt attention to details. His intervention at various stages cleared all impediments, thereby accelerating the actualisation of the project,” Dangote said.
He also expressed gratitude to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Nigerians for their support and belief in the historic project.
“We also thank the NNPCL, NUPRC and NMDPRA for their support. These organisations have been our dependable partners in this historic journey. We also thank Nigerians for their belief and support in this project,” he said.
“In the same vein, we thank the Government of Lagos State, under the leadership of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has been incredibly proactive in ensuring that the many challenges we encountered in the course of executing this project were quickly resolved.
“I thank him immensely. I also sincerely thank our host communities and their traditional leaders for their sustained patience, forbearance, and admirable willingness to work with us to find amicable and win-win resolutions to the many issues we have had to deal with as the construction of this huge facility progressed.
“Our staff have also contributed so immensely to the success of this project. I thank them profusely. I must extend our sincere appreciation to our Bankers and financiers, both local and offshore, who demonstrated a great deal of patience, in seeing us through many difficult times,” Dangote added.