After many years of delay, President Muhammadu Buhari expected to officially inaugurate the long-awaited Dangote Refinery Complex, on May 22, according to the Special Assistant to the President on Digital Communications, Basir Ahmad.
In a Twitter message on Sunday, Ahmad said: “The efforts by the Federal Government to make the country self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery, is set for inauguration on May 22 by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The $19 billion refinery is also expected to rein-in petroleum products importation and significantly reduce fuel subsidies estimated to gulp N8 trillion this year.
This figures comes amid controversies surrounding the actual national daily consumption level, which many believe has been unusually over-bloated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), the sole importer of premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.
Since the President’s last visit to the complex, the refinery has been undergoing pre-inauguration tests, to complement the $2.5 billion Dangote fertilizer plant, which came on stream last year.
The Dangote Refinery complex, which is located in the Lekki Free Zone area of Lagos, covers a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares, which is larger than the size of Victoria Island in Lagos.
The efforts by the Federal Government to make the country self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery.
