Dangote's Refinery To Be Completed In 2021, See The Amazing Gigantic Construction Ongoing - Photos

Nigeria’s giant Dangote refinery will be ready for commissioning at the beginning of 2021, with production reaching full capacity by the end of the first half of the year.

Devakumar Edwin, a group executive director at Dangote Industries Ltd., gave this update in an interview at a conference in Lagos.

The refinery, which is designed to maximize gasoline output, will produce enough to allow for a small surplus of that fuel for export. It will also be able to send a large volume of diesel and jet fuel to international markets, Edwin said.

“We are confident that we can meet 100% of the requirement of the country, so the balance will go for export,” Edwin said.

Dangote plans to take advantage of local crude supply and it won’t participate in the crude-for-fuel swap deal that is managed by the NNPC, which recently extended its crude for fuel deal for another three years.

“We are going to buy the crude just at the export price and will sell our products at the import price, the crude swap is operating only for the importers of the product,” Edwin said.

The new refinery has been designed to process varieties of crude from sweet to light crude sourced both locally, and abroad. Dangote plans to export its diesel to Europe and gasoline to Latin America, Western and Central African markets, Edwin said.

Evacuation of refined products will be done by sea and through roads, he said.

“We are thinking of investing in vessels. We want to make sure we are not held for ransom by any transport operators.”

The refinery is meant to take off December 2019 but due to some logistics and issues beyond the control of the firm, they can't meet up with the proposed date. A lot has happened at this site, many theories have been broken and many records have been set, for example, the world biggest cane ever used was used at this site, the world's biggest atmospheric tower, the installation of the 586 tons Naphtha Hydrodesulfurization Unit, laying of the 48 inch underwater pipeline, Installation of the 586 tons Naphtha Hydrodesulfurization Unit among many others amazing equipments.

AutoReportNG got you covered as we have some amazing pictures for you to see...

Dangote Refinery World’s Largest Atmospheric Tower For Processing Crude Oil Leaves China For Nigeria

Dangote's World’s Largest Atmospheric Tower 

Nigerians woke up to see the news of Dangote's refinery trending on the social media early this week and this is because World’s largest atmospheric tower that's leaving China to Nigeria.

A piece of equipment, atmospheric tower, that will process crude oil for Nigeria’s Dangote refinery set sail on Monday from China to Lagos - According to the manufacturer, the tower is the largest in the world and will likely take at least a month to reach Lagos

Dangote Refinery planned to be producing 650,000 barrel per day (BPD) is set to be Africa’s largest World’s largest atmospheric tower built for Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has left the port in China en-route to Nigeria, according to the manufacturer, Sinopec, China’s leading energy and chemical company.

Sinopec, on Monday, July 29, made this known on its verified Twitter handle, sharing photos of the tower. “On July 29, the world’s largest atmospheric tower built by Sinopec slowly left a wharf in Ningbo. Following the Maritime #SilkRoad, it will travel to #Nigeria and be installed at the world’s biggest single-train facility Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery,” the tweet reads.

On July 29, the world's largest atmospheric tower built by Sinopec slowly left a wharf in Ningbo. Following the Maritime #SilkRoad, it will travel to #Nigeria and be installed at the world’s biggest single-train facility - Nigeria's Dangote Refinery. pic.twitter.com/8zBJesejn1

— Sinopec (@SinopecNews) July 29, 2019

The piece of equipment is designed to process crude oil for Dangote refinery.

For the type of refinery, Dangote Group is building, the atmospheric tower is the primary unit processing crude oil into fuels, Citac analyst Jeremy Parker told Reuters, adding that it will likely take at least a month to reach Lagos. The refinery which is planned to be producing 650,000 barrel per day (BPD) is set to be Africa’s largest, with the potential to transform Nigeria from being an importer of fuel to a net exporter.

The refinery is situated on a 6,180 acres (2,500 hectares) site at the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos.

Recall that Aliko Dangote in 2018 disclosed that he planned to complete the $12-14 billion refinery project in 2019, with additional plans to start production in early 2020.

According to Citac's projection, the refinery will start producing fuels in 2023.

Dangote Refinery: The Making Of Africa's Biggest Private Refinery - Photos

The Dangote Refinery seems to be one if not the largest project going on the Africa continent currently. It's a project that has gulped lots of billions of dollars, break some technological protocol, it has involved a lot of technical and advanced engineering. People on this site work day in, day out to make sure the refinery receives the best and meet up with the timeline.

For example, the 2760 ton RFCC regenerator, is the largest of its kind in the world which was made in South Korea. According to Dangote, he has to build its own port in order to accommodate all these mega machineries as no Nigerian port can accommodate any of these items.

The CEO/Founder Mr. Aliko Dangote while speaking with Mo Ibrahim recently, when he was asked to comment about the refinery, he said, " it can be considered the largest project in the world when considering all various construction around the area". One hard fact is when he says the refinery section of the project has 136,000 piles, more than anywhere else in the world.

When the refinery is finished, it is expected that it will produce 650,000 barrels of crude daily. According to Aliko Dangote, the refinery has gulped $130billion so far.

The site was about 2 million square meters in size was bought for the sole aim of the refinery from both the Federal and State Government.

According to the images we have seen so far, work at this site is nothing but a mega one. Lots of work are on-going simultaneously which leaves no room for negligence from the workers in any way. The pile foundation, civil construction, grid flow production tasks, and the grid installation work are ongoing.

At the completion of this project, it's said to create thousands of job opportunities for the youths and for those in the oil sector thereby saving the nation a huge amount of money from foreign refineries.

AutoReportNG got some images from the companies handling the project, we felt its important to report back to you on how they fare.