Mr Edvin: Dangote Refinery is a strategic National Reserve for Nigeria

The Vice president of the Dangote oil and gas Refinery Mr Devakumar Edvin has said the new Dangote Refinery serves as a strategic national reserve for the country. In a media tour of the oil facility located at the Lekki free trade zone in Lagos State, Nigeria, with news editors from different media organizations in Nigeria, Mr Edvin said before the refinery was built, there used to be fuel scarcity during Christmas period in Nigeria because the country has no strategic national reserve. But with the coming of the refinery, fuel scarcity has now become a thing of the past  because of the storage facility of the refinery. He said:

‘’You know, often we used to run short of fuel, especially during Christmas season or sometimes when the airport is having a problem. Here we have more than we can hold 15 days stock of fuel for the whole country. In case of diesel, we can even hold more than one month stock. PMS, we can hold more than 15 days stock and jet much, much more. So we have. Actually what we are having here is like a national strategic reserve. Most of the countries have national strategic reserves. Unfortunately we don’t have because we don’t have a storage facility’’.

Dangote built by Nigeria local company

Mr Edvin further explained that it was a near impossible task for a Nigerian company to build an oil and gas refinery. He explained that when the idea of building the refinery came up, Mr Aliko Dangote who is the president of the company was determined to see the actualization of the refinery which now stand as the single the largest single train petroleum refinery.

‘’Before we set it up, the largest single train petroleum refinery was 430,000 barrels per day in the Middle East. So what we have set up is 50% larger than the largest refinery. It’s a major effort. In fact, even the licensers were telling it may not be possible, but we sat with them, worked and designed and developed. But the biggest thing which we are even more proud of, yes, we are proud of having the world’s largest single train petroleum refinery. But what we are even more proud of is that a Nigerian company built it. If you go all across the world, when you go to US, you can go to Europe, you can go to Asia. Refineries, whether they are built by Shell or Chevron or Exxon Mobil or Total, they use a few construction companies. Bechtel from US, Siphon from Italy, Technip from France, JGC from Japan, Chiyoda. So these six companies are the ones who have practically built all the refineries in the world. But when it came to our company and we asked, we went to them too. We went and talked to three of them. They all said, okay, you are talking about 650,000 barrels. The capital cost will be roughly $30,000 a barrel, which means 30,000 into 650,000 is about 19 and a half billion dollars. So it’s a 20 billion dollar investment. You will need to pay us 15% fees, which is $3 billion. And so my president said, no, let’s go and build it ourselves. We told him, you see companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, Chevron they have never tried it. And you want us to do this? It’s almost impossible. Then he said, edwin, have you forgotten? You know he has a plaque on his table which says nothing is impossible. Have you forgotten what I keep on my table? So he said, nothing is impossible. Let’s just go and do it. And that is how we built this refinery. Dangote Projects limited built this refinery. So it is something much more. Every Nigerian can be proud of that. A Nigerian company attempted and built the world’s largest single trade refinery. And now we can see the value addition which is creating in’’.

Economic stability: Nigeria has changed from importer of oil and gas to exporter

The Dangote Refinery has become a game changer for Nigeria and its economy. The refinery has help stabilized the nation’s economy. Nigeria has now migrated from being one of the largest importers of petrol, diesel, kerosine and jet fuel to exporter of these products not only to neighbouring African countries but to the US Europe and Asia. The Nigeria’s economic stability after fuel subsidy removal is cutesy of the company. The refinery has also reduced pressure on forex, giving naira more value in exchange for dollar. Mr Edvin explained how the Refinery has become a game changer for Nigeria’s economy, transforming the country from a major importer of petroleum product to net exporter. He explained:

“You can see we are exporting all our jet fuel primarily to Europe. Our gasoline has gone to us, our diesel is going to Europe. So it’s not only consistent supply of fuel but also high quality fuel. And then if you see the prices of fuel last year after the subsidy was removed, it was going up, stabilized at a level. You can go and check at what price it was selling and at what price it is selling today. I have been here, as I said, for 34 years. I have not seen even the price of stationary paper or a pure water coming down. And we have seen for the first-time fuel prices coming down. So we have not added value only in terms of quality and consistency of supply, but in terms of pricing. And, you can see the global impact of the price of the refinery. You can see how the currency values have been stable or sometimes even becoming stronger because instead of importing huge quantities of finished petroleum products, now you are having locally available products and we are also exporting products. So, we are also generating foreign, foreign exchange. So there is a net benefit to the country. This is a huge forex outflow. Now there is inflow andalso outflow is reduced. So there is an inflow, import substitution plus Exports. So it’s also adding helping the country in terms of stabilizing the currencies. In fact, if we continue to go in this direction strongly, the currency will even continue to become better. So, the refinery has been able to contribute in a large way”.

Dangote Oil and Gas refinery has also fertilizer plant with two million tone annual capacity. Nigeria’s fertilizer annual requirement stands at seven hundred fifty thousand tones less than the capacity of the refinery. What this means is that more Nigerians can go into commercial farming with available fertilizer at affordable price. The refinery has also provided employment to many Nigerian youths especially those that studied chemical engineering. This has significantly reduce the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. it is hope that the refinery will encourage other Nigeria businessmen to invest in the manufacturing sector of the Nigeria’s economy