The Dangote Petroleum Refinery will consume roughly 2.5 percent of globally traded crude oil once it reaches full capacity, according to Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian billionaire behind Africa’s largest refining complex, underscoring the plant’s growing weight in world energy markets.
The 700,000-barrel-a-day facility will also match about 10 percent of total US refining capacity when fully ramped up, Dangote said Wednesday, as he hosted John Enoh, Nigeria’s minister of state for industry, on a tour of the refinery, an adjoining petrochemicals complex and Dangote Fertiliser Limited in Lagos.
The visit doubled as a show of government support for the refinery, which Enoh called “one of the most significant investments in Africa” and a template for the industrial growth Nigeria needs to hit President Bola Tinubu’s target of a $1 trillion economy.
“You cannot be Minister in charge of Industry and not visit the Dangote Refinery,” Enoh told reporters. “This facility matters because of what it represents for Nigerian industry, for our people and for the realisation of President Bola Tinubu’s vision of a one trillion-dollar economy.”
The refinery has helped flip Nigeria’s position in global fuel markets, turning Africa’s largest crude producer from a chronic importer of refined products into a supplier to buyers as far afield as the Middle East, Enoh said. He pointed to recent global supply disruptions as a test case.
