Africa’s largest oil refinery will come on stream only by the end of 2020. Earlier, it was scheduled to be commissioned by the end of this year. The delay is due to problems of importing steel and other equipment. The refinery coming up in the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos is touted to be one of the largest refineries in the world and the major refinery in Africa. The refinery will, to some extent, address the paradox that the largest oil producer of crude in Africa –Nigeria- imports 90% of the refined products of hydrocarbons including fuels, from countries, where it exports crude. The refineries in Nigeria are either with small capacities or inefficient due to lack of state-of-the-art equipment to refine the crude. Not only the imported gasoline prices are too steep, but also there are occasional shortages, putting the general public into great disadvantage.
The fuel production will start within two months of completion of the refinery. Billionaire Aliko Dangote, who is more known as a cement tycoon, first announced a smaller refinery in 2013, to be completed in 2016. Abandoning the original plan, Dangote moved the plant to Lekki, in Lagos, upgraded the size and scale of the refinery.
However, experts are not buying the completion plan of Dangote. They feel that the commercial refining can start only by 2022 since the pace of progress of work is not commensurate with the claim of the company sources. Not only the refinery, but also the required supply chain has to be set up within the time stipulated. The refinery’s tank farms will have to be completed. Then these tanks have to be connected to five “single point mooring buoys” (SPMs) to pump crude straight into tanks from large ships at sea and pump products back out onto boats of any size.
