The long-awaited inauguration of Dangote Oil Refinery in Epe, Lagos State is set for Monday (today) with President Muhammadu Buhari billed to do the honours, days before he exits office.
The Dangote Group, in a statement Saturday on Twitter, said the refinery will be churning out Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), diesel (AGO), aviation jet fuel and Dual-Purpose Kerosene (DPK), among other refined products.
The CEO Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Sanjay Gupta, stated that “everything in this plant by way of size is the first. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world”.
“There is no single column which can process 650,000 barrels per day anywhere else,” he stated.
Ahead of the commissioning, the Lagos State Government on Saturday urged commuters to plan their movement in and out of the Lekki-Epe corridor between 8 am and 2 pm.
In January 2022, the Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi in a tweet noted that the “Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical complex in Lekki sits on land that is more than 3 times the size of Victoria Island”.
He added that the fertiliser plant was already producing.
Experts believe that the Dangote Refinery could help achieve macroeconomic stability in Nigeria, however, they say it cannot eradicate all the problems in Nigeria’s oil sector.
The plant which is arguably Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the worlds biggest simple-train facility will no doubt create more employment opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming population.
And while the refinery is a game-changer for the nation’s troubled oil sector, one that will increase human, labor, and capital stock productivity, the experts say Nigeria needs to use its oil revenues wisely, to create a better future, especially as the world is moving toward renewable energy technologies.