The 650,000 mega Dangote Refinery started supplying petroleum products to the local market yesterday, a company executive and fuel marketing associations told Reuters. Seen as a major step in the country’s quest for energy independence, the refinery, Africa’s largest, was built on a peninsula on the outskirts of the commercial capital, Lagos, at a cost of $20 billion by the continent’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and was completed after several years of delay. The company will save Nigeria the much-needed foreign exchange (FX) that would have been expended on importing the fuels, as well as earn the country some hard currency from the supply of products to foreign markets. Nigeria spends at least 50 per cent of its $30 billion import expenditure on the fuels. This is expected to reduce considerably, following the latest development. Reuters quoted Dangote’s Group Executive, Devakumar Edwin, as confirming the shipping of diesel and jet fuel into the local market. “We have substantial quantities. Products are being evacuated both by sea and road. Ships are lining up one after another to load diesel and aviation jet fuel,” Edwin said. “Ships load a minimum of 26 million litres, though we try to push for 37 million litres vessels, for ease of operations,” he added.
