After eight years of work, months of negotiations and several false starts, the continent’s largest refinery, owned by Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, began delivering its first litres of petrol on Sunday.
About 500 tanker trucks were transported Sunday by the national oil company (Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC) to the refinery located more than 70 kilometers east of Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, to take away 25 million liters of gasoline, also called PMS (Premium Motor Spirit), noted an AFP journalist on the scene.
The gigantic infrastructure, with an eventual capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, whose total cost has reached 20 billion dollars, more than double the initially planned amount, is supposed to be able to cover all the fuel needs of the most populous country in Africa, as well as to export part of its production.
Nigeria is the country’s largest oil producer but imports almost all of its fuel needs.
The country has four state-owned refineries (in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna) but none are operational anymore.
Nigerian Finance Minister Wale Edun, who was present at the event, hailed the event as a “historic event” marking “the resumption of Nigeria’s march towards industrialisation”.
“Today we have taken an important step towards energy self-sufficiency in Nigeria,” he said.
The refinery, whose start-up has been repeatedly delayed, has long been presented to the public as a solution to Nigeria’s chronic gasoline shortages while keeping pump prices low.
But nothing is less certain as Nigerians have seen the price of a litre of petrol at the pump rise from less than 200 naira to 850 naira in a year and a half.
The price of petrol initially tripled after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power and ended fuel subsidies, which had for decades kept prices artificially low.
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At the beginning of September, a surprise increase of almost 45% in the price at the pump was also put in place, all the more difficult to accept for Nigerians as the country is going through a serious economic crisis with inflation exceeding 33% in July.
Aliko Dangote, ranked in 2024 by Forbes magazine as “the richest man in Africa” for the thirteenth consecutive year, heads a conglomerate active in many sectors including cement, sugar and fertilizers.
Dangote petrol is expected to be available at the pumps from October 1.
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