After eight years of work, months of negotiations and several false starts, the continent’s largest refinery, owned by Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, started delivering its first liter of petrol on Sunday.
On Sunday, about 500 tankers were transported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to the refinery located more than 70 kilometers east of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, to transport 25 million liters of petrol, also called PMS (Premium Motor Spirit). transport. AFP journalist on site.
The gigantic infrastructure, with an eventual capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the total cost of which reached 20 billion dollars, more than double what was initially planned, is supposed to meet the entire fuel needs of Africa’s largest populous country, to be able to cover as well as the export of a part of its production.
Nigeria is the country’s largest oil producer, but imports almost all of its fuel needs.
The country has four state-owned refineries (in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna), but none are functional anymore.
The Nigerian Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, present at the site, welcomed a “historic event” mark “resuming Nigeria’s march towards industrialization”.
“Today we have taken an important step towards energy self-sufficiency in Nigeria”he assured.
This refinery, whose commissioning has been repeatedly delayed, has long been touted to the public as the solution to Nigeria’s chronic petrol shortages while maintaining low prices at the pump.
But nothing is less certain as Nigerians have seen the price of a liter of petrol at the pump rise from less than 200 naira to 850 naira in a year and a half.
The price of petrol initially tripled after the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended fuel subsidies, which had made it possible to artificially maintain very low prices for decades.
At the beginning of September, a surprise increase of almost 45% in the price at the pump was also implemented, all the more difficult for Nigerians to accept as the country is going through a serious economic crisis with inflation of over 33% in July .
Aliko Dangote, ranked in 2024 by Forbes magazine as “the richest man in Africa” heads a conglomerate active in numerous sectors including cement, sugar and fertilizers for the thirteenth consecutive year.
Dangote petrol is expected to be available at the pump from October 1.