JUST IN: Reps Leaders Visit Dangote Refinery

The leadership of the House of Representatives have visited the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, led the lawmakers who arrived at the refinery located in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos around 11am.

Africa’s richest man and President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and top executives of the refineries received the lawmakers.

The lawmakers are expected to take a tour of the 650,000 barrels per day refinery during the visit.

The visit marks the second time federal lawmakers will visit the refinery in two months.

It also comes at a crucial time for the refinery, as it is scheduled to start the supply of petrol next month while also battling what it says are attempts by international oil companies to frustrate its access to crude oil needed for production.

In June, Senate President Godswill Akpabio led the leadership of the Senate on a tour of the refinery, praising the project and pledging support for it.

The “whole Nigeria couldn’t make refineries function in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri, but that Dangote and his team have proven that it is possible to dream and achieve it in Nigeria,” Akpabio said during his visit, highlighting the significance of the project.

Africa’s largest oil refinery

Commissioned in May by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari after years of delay, the facility in Lagos State is billed as Africa’s largest oil refinery.

Built by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote with the ability to process 650,000 barrels a day when at full capacity, the facility was expected to begin operations in June but did not owing to a lack of crude oil supply.

Despite being Africa’s most populous nation and one of the continent’s largest crude producers, the country has depended on imports to meet local demand because of under-performing state-run refineries.

Nigeria swapped crude worth billions of dollars for gasoline it previously subsidised for its domestic market. But the huge drain on foreign exchange at a time of dwindling oil revenue pushed the government to remove the subsidy.

However, with the new oil plant getting shipped, the facility is poised to be a game changer.

“Our focus over the coming months is to ramp up the refinery to its full capacity. I look forward to the next significant milestone when we deliver the first batch of products to the Nigerian market,” the President of Dangote Group Mr. Aliko Dangote said.

The new facility lies on 2,635 hectares (6,500 acres) of land in the Lekki Free Zone and costs an estimated $19 billion.