Dangote Industries Limited has stepped up plans to expand its Lekki refinery in Lagos, acquiring an additional 4,000 pieces of construction equipment as it works towards increasing the facility’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day. The latest acquisition brings the company’s construction equipment fleet to about 6,500 machines, including 330 cranes.

The Group Vice President, Oil and Gas and Fertiliser, Devakumar Edwin, disclosed this during a briefing with journalists following a tour of the refinery in Ibeju-Lekki. According to Edwin, Dangote initially purchased 2,563 pieces of construction equipment after contractors, including Julius Berger, indicated that they did not have the capacity to construct some of the refinery’s main process buildings.

Edwin explained that Dangote chose to build its own construction capacity partly to reduce project costs and avoid the additional expenses associated with bringing foreign contractors and their equipment into Nigeria. He said the company’s existing infrastructure, including a private port, granite quarry, concrete batching plants, transit mixers and other facilities, will also support the expansion and help reduce both construction costs and project timelines.

The refinery, which was originally designed to process 650,000 barrels per day, is currently operating at about 700,000 barrels per day, according to Edwin. He added that the expansion will leverage infrastructure already developed for the first phase of the project. International contractors had reportedly proposed fees of about 12.5 per cent of an estimated $19.5bn capital cost, a structure Dangote rejected in favour of executing the project through its own project company, Dangote Projects Limited.

When completed, the expansion is expected to significantly increase Dangote’s refining footprint, with the group targeting a combined refining capacity of about 2.1 million barrels per day after the Lekki expansion and the planned 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Kenya. The Lekki refinery was designed to produce high-value products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel, while also supplying products to the Nigerian market and export destinations.

source: punch