By Ray Echebiri
On May 22, 2023, former President Muhammadu Buhari was in Lagos to inaugurate Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals.Even though the refinery has not started pumping out petroleum products, it is expected that in the next few months, petroleum products would start gushing out of the multi-billion Naira refinery reputed to be theworld’s largest single train petroleum refinery.
To be sure, the inauguration of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals which will churn out various petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and kerosene, represents not only a new era for Nigeria but for the entire sub-Saharan Africa because it is the first of its kind in the whole of black Africa.
Dangote Refinery as Game Changer
Devakumar Edwin, Group Executive Director, Strategy, PortfolioDevelopment & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited described Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals as a game changer. That is exactly what it is. This is because it has come to change the totality of Nigeria’s economy for good. For years now, the country has depended almost entirely on imported petroleum products. The refinery will put full stop to that and even make the country a net exporter of petroleum products. And with this, Nigeria and Nigeria’s will bid goodbye to the vexatious issue of fuel subsidy. With Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the country will no longer incur the enormous freight and insurance costs associated with the importation of petroleum products. Therefore, Nigerians will certainly pay less for petroleum products. But if for any reason Nigerians do not pay less for petroleum products from Dangote Petroleum Refinery, they will still be better off because they would be guaranteed of the availability of petroleum products. Moreover, other benefits that will accrue to Nigerians from the refinery such as jobs (direct and indirect), corporate social responsibility, tax payment to government, etc. will serve as enough compensation. Apart from the products that will be churned out by the refinery, the byproducts of the refinery are many and quite beneficial to the country’s industrial development. According to the brain behind the refinery and Chairman/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, the Petrochemical Plant is designed to produce 77different high-performance grades of polypropylene.Petrochemical, he said, is the source of raw materials for manymanufacturing and assembling plants, adding that products fromthe plant will serve as raw materials for the productionof polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is used extensivelyacross a broad range of industrial, technical, andeveryday applications including widespread use inbuilding, transport, packaging, electrical/electronic and healthcare applications.“These new projects will no doubt, create linkages inthe Nigerian economy leading to the evolution ofindustries that will use their byproducts asstarting materials”, he said.
Location of the Refinery
The multidimensional 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude oil refinery is located in Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, at the waterfront part of Lagos, Nigeria, superjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, and covers an area of approximately 2,635 hectares.The refinery is designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African crudes, some of the Middle Eastern crudes and the US Light Tight Oil. The refinery can meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirement of all liquid petroleum products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene and Aviation Jet) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.
Technology of the Refinery
The refinery is designed to use the latest technology to comply with stringent guidelines and regulations to protect the local environment, and at the same time produce the latest environmentally friendly petroleum products for worldwide markets.
The Dangote Refinery project is particularly complex, featuring engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, and related storage facilities, all located in the Dangote Industries Free Zone Area of Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Dangote Industries is one of the few companies in the world executing a Petroleum Refinery and a Petrochemical complex directly as an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contractor. Globally, apart from three companies, no individual owner has done the complete EPC Contract for a petroleum refinery.
The refinery has its own dedicated steam and power generation system with adequate standby units for reliable/uninterrupted utility supply to operating plants.The refinery design conforms to World Bank, United States EPA, EU and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms.
The Quays
To facilitate the building of the refinery, Dangote Industries developed a port and constructed roll-on and roll-off quays with a load bearing capacity of 25tonnes/sq metres to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly to handle liquid cargoes. The Jetty is situated at distance of 12.3 km from the refinery thereby effectively reducing the travel time.
Employment Opportunities
Dangote Refinery is going to generate huge employment capacity for the country. At present, there is expected to be over 100,000 indirect employments at retail outletswith ease of availability of product which willhelp open up service stations and with expected 16,000 trucks for transport that will create additional jobs.
Currently over 30,000 are working at the petroleum refinery project site through various contractors with temporary housing units on the premises that can house 33,000 persons.When operational, the refinery is going to generate over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerian youths. The refinery has already trained over 400 artisans selected from host communities in the areas of Masonry, Carpentry, AC Electricals, Plumbing, Welding, Iron-bending and Auto Mechanics in collaboration with the Nigerian Directorate of Employment and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board. This flows into manpower development and training of 900 young engineers in refinery operations outside the country. Part of this includes another six Mechanical Engineers trained in the GE University in Italy with 50 Process Engineers trained by Honeywell/UOP for six months; 50 Management Trainees; secondment for succession.
Environmental Protection
Dangote Refinery embraces the entire ecosystem of health, safety and environment for its operations. It maintains high standards for all its business practices, valuing health, safety, environment and rights for its employees, compliance with all applicable local and international laws, and being a committed partner to host communities, governments and also environment-friendly.All units and utilities of the refinery conform to world-class safety standards and codes such as API, AFPM, etc. Complete fire protection system with international SAFE practice Suitable instrumentation to ensure alarm and trip to avoid material/personal damage HAZOP and SIL studies done with independent chairmen.
The environmental-friendly operations of Dangote Refinery include air emission control measures.Units are designed to meet EU and USEPA Standards with ambient air quality monitoring stations and mobile monitoring stations.This also includes waste water treatment and reuse. Liquid effluent streams generated within the refinery are treated in a central effluent treatment plant. Part of the treated effluent is reused for DM water generation/fresh water makeup within the refinery.
This central effluent treatment plant comprises OWS/Process Effluent Chain, Contaminated Rain Water Treatment Chain, Sanitary Effluent Treatment Chain and Spent Caustic Treatment Chain.
Dangote Refinery came from the background of an environment that has hitherto been untouched by human activities as 70 per cent of the site was hitherto swampynecessitating reclamation. The reclamation process involved 65 million cubic metres of sand filling costing approximately 300 million Euros, elevating the height by 1.5 metres to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.
Community Development Programmes
One of the lasting values of Dangote Refinery is its absolute commitment to the development and welfare of its host community of Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State. This commitment involves striving to make a huge difference in the social lives of host communities through investments that simultaneously provide lasting community benefits and direct business value.
Dangote Refinery’s community development programme is second to none. The refinery has put in place mobile clinics in collaboration with the local government council for free consultation, diagnosis, and provision of drugs for ailments like malaria, fever, etc.It runs other health programmes such as eye treatment and health awareness campaigns. As part of its corporate social responsibility, the refinery runsa micro credit scheme which provides credits to members of its host community who desire the venture into business. In the area of education, the refinery has a robust Educational Development Programme which includes award of scholarships to meritorious candidates and building of schools in which children of its host community can enroll and get the best of teaching in a convivial atmosphere. What is more, the refinery has an enviable youth empowerment and vocational training programme including enhancement of infrastructure in host community primary schools involvingbuilding of computer training centre for indigenous youth. The youth empowerment programme also includes development and training of youth entrepreneurs in partnership with the Lagos State government and Siemens in the skills development of the local community for employment at the construction site.
Certainly, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is a game changer not only in the oil and gas sector but in the whole of Nigeria’s economy.