Dangote Oil Refining Co. (DORC), a division of Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Industries Ltd. (DIL), has let a contract to MAN Diesel & Turbo SE (MDT), Augsburg, Germany, to provide equipment and associated technology services for its grassroots integrated refining complex now under construction in southwestern Nigeria’s Lekki Free Trade Zone, near the capital of Lagos (OGJ Online, Nov. 25, 2013).
MDT will build and deliver two axial compressor trains driven by 30-Mw turbines to support operations at the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking plant, as well as provide a comprehensive auxiliary service package, including equipment commissioning services, MDT said.
While a precise cost of the contract was not revealed, the service provider valued the order in the double-digit million dollars.
MDT said it expects to deliver the equipment sometime in 2018, ahead of DORC’s planned startup of the entire $12-billion refining and petrochemical complex in 2019.
Project details
According to social media posts from the state government of Lagos as well as details of a previous contracts awarded for the former $11-billion project, the integrated complex will include a 650,000-b/d crude distillation unit and 3.6 million-tonne/year polypropylene plant, as well as units for the following major processes: residual FCC; diesel hydrotreating; continuous catalyst regeneration; and alkylation.
While Nigeria holds the second-largest amount of proved oil reserves in Africa—more than 37 billion bbl—the country currently imports most of its refined product requirements due to lack of domestic refining capacity.
Once completed, however, DORC’s refinery will be able to satisfy 100% of Nigeria’s fuel demand, said Alhaji Aliko Dangote, DIL’s president and chief executive.
Additional planned capacity of the refinery comes alongside a series of efforts under way by the Nigerian government to modernize and expand capacities of refineries operated by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. beginning this year as part of a strategy to meet Nigeria’s domestic demand for refined products and reduce its reliance on foreign imports.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
