Dangote Industries Limited has acquired an additional 4,000 construction machines for the expansion of its Lekki refinery to 1.4 million barrels per day, bringing its equipment fleet to 6,500 machines.
The Group Vice President, Oil and Gas and Fertiliser, Devakumar Edwin, disclosed this during a briefing with editors at the refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. He said the company initially purchased 2,563 machines after contractors indicated they lacked the capacity to construct the refinery’s main factory buildings.
Edwin said Dangote chose to build its own equipment fleet instead of relying on foreign engineering, procurement and construction contractors, which he said would have increased project costs through equipment mobilisation and other charges. The company now has 330 cranes, alongside other construction equipment.
He said the refinery project was also affected by Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, noting that existing facilities and equipment would be reused for the expansion. These include a 10 million-tonne-capacity granite quarry, 82 concrete batching plants, 203 transit mixers, a private port, an oxygen and welding-gas plant and accommodation for up to 50,000 workers.
Edwin said the refinery, originally designed to process 650,000 barrels of crude daily, was already operating at about 700,000 barrels per day. He added that the expansion was being executed by Dangote Projects Limited after international contractors quoted fees of about 12.5 per cent of an estimated $19.5bn capital cost.
According to Edwin, the refinery was designed to support both domestic supply and exports, with 44 per cent of production originally intended for Nigeria and 56 per cent for export. He said about 95 per cent of its output comprises high-value products including petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
Edwin added that the refinery remains the world’s largest single-train petroleum refinery, with a capacity exceeding the previous largest facility’s 430,000 barrels per day. He said the expansion and Dangote’s planned 700,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Kenya would eventually give the group about 2.1 million barrels per day in refining capacity.
