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The much-talked-about Dangote Petroleum Refinery has finally commenced refining operations in the early hours of Friday, January 12, 2024.
The development comes over six years after Africa's richest man and founder of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, commenced the construction of the facility, which is located in Lagos - Nigeria's commercial hub.
The multi-billion dollar oil refinery is purposely designed to process Nigerian crude with the ability to also process other crudes.
Reputed as the largest single-train refinery in the world, the facility was supposed to begin operations in June 2023 after its inauguration by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May of the same year.
However, the Dangote Refinery didn’t receive crude supply until late December, and six million barrels of crude have been pumped into the facility in different instalments since then.
When fully operational, the 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery has been touted as a game-changer for Nigeria's economy by helping to end the country's reliance on imported fuel.
The initial run will see the refinery churn out diesel and aviation fuel before moving on to petrol production.
Despite its status as Africa’s largest oil producer and the continent’s top economy, Nigeria heavily relies on imported fuel and diesel due to the moribund state of the local refineries.
“Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirement of all refined products, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation jet, and also have a surplus of each of these products for export,” the company said in a statement.
Fuel imports and subsidies were major strains on foreign exchange when the West African giant was struggling with dwindling oil revenues and a shortage of foreign exchanges.