Nigerian economy is closer to its promise land than previously envisage and the emergence of Dangote refinery open up massive opportunity for economic fortune.Ibikunle Abraham Laniyan the blogger examines the benefits from the refinery and suggest the way forward on how it can make Nigeria the world largest economy in five years.Enjoy the piece.
Nigeria imports 90% of annual polypropylene needs worth $267m. about 250,000 metric tones of polypropylene.Now with Dangote refinery Nigeria is going to be the net exporter globally. Dangote has inbuilt capacity of 900,000 metric tonnes almost a million metric tones of polypropylene plant in the Dangote $2billion petrochemical plant will surely contribute a lot to the projected $1tr economy.
About 1.7million worth of jet fuel was exported by six vessels to America and about 350 million jet fuels exported to the middle east
The first crude or maiden supply of the 1million barrel came from Agbami 1 belonging to shell international trading and shipping company (STASCO) one of the largest trading in Nigeria with 8million barrel per day
The truth is that we know petrochemical or petchems are chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Also chemical compounds at least a few of them obtained from petroleum also made from other fossil fuels like coal or natural gas or renewable sources like maize,palm fruit or sugar cane .Olefins and aromatics are the two most common petrochemical classes and we refer to ethylene ,butene, butadiene used in synthetic rubber and propylene as Olefins and Benzene,Toluene and xylene isomers as aromatics .
Oil refineries by fluid catalytic cracking of Petroleum fraction produce Olefins and aromatics .Hence by steam cracking of natural gas liquids such as ethane and propane chemical plants produce Olefins unnlike aromatics produced by catalytic reforming of naptha.The two become the building blocks of wide range of materials from solvents, adhesives into detergents.For instance Olefins became the basis of polymer and oligomers used in the production of resins, plastics,elastomers,fibers, lubricants, gels etc. Synthetic gas a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide to produce methanol and other chemicals. Unlike steam reforming plants, steam crackers are used to produce hydrogen and ammonia used in fertilizer urea.
Petrochemicals derived from oil and gas are used in more than 6,000 every day products worldwide.From food to beauty care products they re predominantly used in the every day life of modern consumers.
For instance chocolate coatings contain food grade paraffin wax derived from petroleum,coal or shale oil.It creates a glossy sheen when blended with chocolate 🍫 upon hardening to keep chocolate solid at higher temperatures since it has a low melting point.Toothpaste contains oil derivative such as polypropylene glycol,added for reasons like flavouring,anti bacteria properties and texture.Poloxamer 407 is another petroleum derivative to help toothpaste dissolve in water.Sodium saccharin artificial sweetener is another petroleum derivative to kill plaque.Take your perfume for instance when you adorn them especially those perfumes you re probably using the bones of long dead people or animal on your body .Instead of essential natural oils many fragrances use petroleum derived oils.Galaxolide,hedione,Iso E Super are samples of annerlike aromatic synthetic oil with jasmine scent.Paint use the same component adding plastic polymer to paint make the water resistant and durable.Plastic based paints adhere to surfaces with less crack compared to other natural option.Synthetic oli also allow for better range of color.To some extent paints are made up of one third plastics .
Moreover,most pills are coated in plastic,to encourage easy swallow.With synthetic components active ingredients are preserved from degradation so easily so that they have longer shelf life.Petroleum derived synthetic oils are also used in food flavouring like vanilla flavor ,almond and lemon.From petroleum jelly derived from gas and oil to laxatives made polyethylene glycol for skin moisturizing and skin protection from cracking and dry skin down to shaving cream and air freshener were derived from the same crude oil and synthetic components.What a great revelation of technological discovery for the massive contribution of mordern civilization.
While petrochemical products are produced in few manufacturing locations around the world African countries to be industrialised must fund the manufacturing base .The question which of the petrochemical products are we producing in black Africa especially the 49 black African countries prior to the emergence of Dangote refinery the largest single train refinery world wide ? Seriously none.This dearth today is resolved by Dangote refinery and Nigerian economy a potential world beater.
Dangote petrochemical plant produces at least 77 different high performance grades of polypropylene and currently eyeing $130billion global propylene market.
A refinery that has the capacity to load 2,900 trucks per day,4.6milion diesel,4million aviation fuel and 10.4million metric tonnes of gasoline per annum. It was begun in 2013 with estimated cost of $9b.later ballooned to $15b.in 2017 with ballooning of the forex rates mechanically completed in 2019 and commissioned in early 2020.But the work was ongoing as it incurred some delays due to COVID-19 pandemic Edwin Devakummar Dangote Group executive director said at a petroleum summit.
On June 2021 he put project construction progress at 79 percent and overall project completion of 89.5 in terms of engineering procurement and construction basis.By the time former president Muhammad Buhari commissioned the refinery a year later it had gulped 20billion dollars.Some debt finance 50% and some equity finance 50percent according to some sources.On may 2023 when the refinery was commissioned the total debt profile of the project had ballooned to $27b.
It is expected to serve as foreign exchange earner for the country easing the import bills especially from crude oil importation the rose trippled over five period from 8.4b.dollars in 2017 to $23.23b.in 2022.according to CBN which also projected if the importation persist the country could spend up to $30b.by 2027.It says it could save the country of almost $30b.importation cost and add another $10b.foreign exchange inflow through export of refined products boosting foreign exchange reserves.
It means the size of foreign reserve in the country which rose to $47b.could be wiped out in less than a year and a half on import Bills.One man Áliko Dangote saved the country from this somewhat eternal mess in the supposedly biggest investment ever in tropical Africa.
The refinery sits elegantly on swampland about seven times the size of Victoria island or Singapore,about 2,635 hectares of land reclaimed with about 65million cubic metres of dredged sands used the world largest dredgers costing $326 m.It drilled a total of 250,000 piles in the civil works in the facility that is comprised of 177 tanks of 4.742 billion liters capacity.The refinery powered by 435 megawatt capacity power plant has by far the largest sub sea pipeline structure in the world to handle three billion cubic metres of oil by capacity per annum.
It secured ten contractors and 900 engineers to work on the monumental projects.From Fabtech ,WABAG, Engineer India ltd handling Engineering procurement and construction all companies,in India,are suppliers to the project down to Honeywell UOP in US,supplied catalyst regeneration and dryer control system, high performance column trays,heat exchanger tubes,modular CCR unit,catalyst coolers etc,SOFEC in US, Schneider Electric in France,Air Liquide Engineering and construction a French company supplied SMR unit,Sulzer Chemtech,in Switzerland, supplied packing,trays,internal columns or column internals,German based Man Diesel & Turbo supplied two compressor trains.Jan De Nul Group in Belgium handle land reclamation on 2,400 hectares; Mammoet in Holland provided a heavy lifting and transport solution plus South Korean Hyundai heavy industries built 15 liquefied petroleum gas tanks for the refinery;C &I leasing a Nigerian company provided transportation and installation services for the subsea pipelines and mooring systems.The young engineers mechanic engineering and process engineers were trained in refinery operations abroad and in GE University in Italy and honey well UOP trained process engineers for six months.The remainder were trained in Bharat petroleum corporation,in Mumbai, India.
It put in an over 60,000 hours of manpower and machine in a labour intensive technology laden endeavours of six years in a roll where over 126 heavy duty trucks daily mooring the earth surface alongside 750 heavy duty equipments plowing the massive land in Ibeji, Lekki was a marvel to behold.The 435 megawatt power plant can meet the total power needs or total power requirements of Ibadan discos at about 860,316 Megawatt per hour covering five states in south west excluding Lagos.The refinery is blessed with the world largest granite quarry with ten million per year production capacity with additional 332 cranes bought to improve installation capacity in the country that was formerly poor.
They bought over this cranes given the fact even Julius Berger,Dantata and Sawoe,Hi tech and the like lack the capacity to supply even a tiny portion of the construction requirements of heavy earthmoving equipment,bulldozers, excavatos and materials like bobcats, compactors and front end loaders.The group of all the APC contracts only obajana and refinery complex projects were handled by the group.
It will generate over 100,000 indirect employment in the retail outlets and leads to establishment of 26,716 filling stations and 129 depots in the country.It will create almost a million jobs in the entire value chain.
The fact sheets from the project covers more than 100percent of all the country requirements.Take a look at the intimidating statistics: gasoline 53 million litters;Diesel 34 million litters per day; Kerosene,10million liters per day; aviation jet 2million litters per day.Interestingly it also has a surplus of these products for export.The refinery standard designs complies with world bank and US EPA, European emission norms and department of petroleum emission /effluent norms.The products also comply with Euro V specifications.
Now with the emergence of Dangote refinery the threat of monopoly by the NNPC,NUPENG etc trended heavily .This was after the unverifiable claim of substandard products was debunked by same regulatory authorities that mooted the falsehood in the first place.There were fears 50,000 trucks might go under,in addition to the fact PETROAN raises alarm over 260 tank farms could also go under.
As Dangote refinery deployed compressed natural gas trucks long seated subsidy cabals are bent in frustrating the move.The Nigerian economy is undergoing complex petrochemical revolution as an aspect of massive of economic revolution in an unprecedented scale in black Africa.
Why are they bent on demarketing the biggest mordern black man investment attempt ever at industrial revolution in black Africa?
The recently sacked 800 employees of Dangote refinery much linked to unionism was settled by the federal government and reposted elsewhere to other companies in the Dangote Group without tampering with their pay and emoluments.Dissents are diverse over the heavyweight investment a turning point in the industrial revolution of black Africa.
Midland Cosmos ltd: Another Competitor
In the background
I think today everyone is talking about Dangote Refinery,wait for the emergence of Laniyan Refinery owned by Laniyan Brothers ltd a subsidiary of Midland Cosmos as the plan for 5 million barrel per day is being finalised to come on stream by 2030 once the company is successful with current ongoing private placement project.We shall fund a refinery city in the north where seventy percent of the nation's landmass is located.
Midland Cosmos providing competition to Dangote refinery expect a lot from its plan Nigeria world biggest economy before 2030 when the refinery would be completed.Watch out.
