President Muhammadu Buhari will on May 22, 2023 unveil the multi-billion Naira Dangote Refinery in Lagos.
The Special Assistant on Digital Communications to the President, Bashir Ahmad, confirmed the development through a statement on Sunday.
He said: “Efforts by the Federal government to make Nigeria self-sufficient in local refining of crude oil to save the scarce foreign exchange used in the importation of petroleum products have received a boost as the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery is set for inauguration on May 22nd, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer for Dangote Industries Limited, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, also confirmed the opening of the refinery in a statement on Sunday in Lagos.
He said: “However, our refinery will be commissioned before President Muhammadu Buhari formally leaves office in May 2023, and the public will be duly informed and invited to the epic event.”
The facility is expected produce 650,000 barrels per day with the cost of completion pegged at $19 billion.
The Dangote Refinery complex located in the Lekki Free Zone area of Lagos covers a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares, which is larger than the entire Victoria Island.
The refinery is the biggest in Africa, and also said to be the biggest single-train facility in the world.
A single-train refinery uses an integrated distillation unit or one Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) to refine crude oil into various petroleum products as against the use of multiple distillation units by most big refineries.