Dangote lets contract for Nigerian integrated refining complex
Dangote Oil Refining Co. (DORC), a division of Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Industries Ltd. (DIL), has let a contract to Honeywell’s UOP LLC, Des Plaines, Ill., for its grassroots integrated refinery and petrochemical plant to be built in southwestern Nigeria’s Lekki Free Trade Zone, near the capital of Lagos (OGJ Online, Nov. 25, 2013).
As part of the contract, UOP will provide process technology, catalysts, and equipment for the refining complex, which when completed, will be Africa’s largest, helping to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imports, says Honeywell.
The proposed complex, which will produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that meet Euro 5 quality specifications, as well as propylene, will implement the following UOP proprietary technologies:
• The UOP Resid Fluid Catalytic Cracking process to produce transportation fuels and propylene.
• The CCR Platforming process to produce high-octane gasoline blending components.
• The Unicracking process to produce diesel.
• The Penex process to produce high-octane gasoline.
• The crude distillation unit (CDU) design, which UOP’s alliance partner, Process Consulting Services, will provide.
In addition to technology licensing and design services, UOP also is working with DORC to provide catalysts, adsorbents, and proprietary equipment for the project, Honeywell said.
In 2013-14, DIL signed loan agreements amounting to nearly $4 billion with a consortium of international banks for the refining complex, part of which also were to be used for the construction of a greenfield fertilizer manufacturing plant (OGJ Online, June 17, 2014).
The company also previously let a contract Engineers India Ltd. (EIL) for project management consultancy and engineering, procurement, and construction management for the integrated refining complex, which at the time, was to include a 400,000-b/d refinery and 600,000-tonne/year (tpy) polypropylene plant (OGJ Online, June 19, 2014).
In September 2014, Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) issued related licenses to DIL for the establishment of a 500,000-b/d refinery as part of the project, according to DPR data.
DIL, however, has since revised both the cost and capacities of the overall project, according to a series of social media posts from the state government of Lagos on Apr. 30.
Currently the proposed integrated refining complex is to have a processing capacity of 650,000 b/d, while the associated petrochemical plant will have a production capacity of 3.6 million tpy.
Scheduled for completion by yearend 2016, the refinery, petrochemical plant, and fertilizer plant will cost an estimated $11 billion, the Lagos state government said.
The refinery project will include a CDU, a single-train residual fluid catalytic cracking unit, a diesel hydrotreating unit, a continuous catalyst regeneration unit, an alkylation unit, and a polypropylene unit, as well as utilities and off sites, including a captive power plant and associated infrastructure involving an integrated, single-point mooring terminal for crude oil and product handling, EIL said.
While Nigeria holds the second-largest amount of proved oil reserves in Africa—more than 37 billion bbl (OGJ, Dec. 1, 2014, p. 30)—the country currently imports most of its refined product requirements due to lack of domestic refining capacity.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
