Dangote made known this sentiment at the Inaugural Annual Downstream Petroleum Week put up by the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream, on Monday, where he was represented by the Group Chief Strategy Officer at Dangote Industries Limited, Aliyu Suleiman.
He urged that the narrative of him running a monopoly should be shelved as it damages Nigeria’s ability to grow its local investment, particularly in the energy sector.
“Too many people with the means to build industries chose instead to invest abroad. We decided from afar, adding little value to our economy,” he stated.
We have chosen differently. We have chosen to go to Nigeria. We have chosen to build here, to employ here, to produce here. Let us not use the cry of monopoly to stall growth. No one is prevented from investing,” he added.
As seen in the Punch, the Nigerian billionaire revealed that he encourages others to set up their own refineries and will provide assistance where he can.
“Nigeria holds the natural competitive advantage in refining. We enjoy proximity to oil and gas supply. We should therefore work together to develop this sector.
We should work to enact and implement laws that will help this sector to prosper. Let us protect our industries and deliver the economic transformation this country deserves.”
He went on to add that his refinery, the Dangote Oil Refinery, is now capable of satisfying Nigeria’s energy demand.
Dangote’s comparison of oil refining in Africa to other markets
“While Europe and Asia refine over 95% of their petroleum product, Africa refines only 40%. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are very few large functional refineries today.
This is understandable because refining is capital-intensive. It is technologically complex and often is a low-margin business,” he stated.
According to Dangote, the challenge of meeting Nigeria’s energy needs is a welcome one.
“This is a challenge that we were happy to take. When it came to tackling the refining challenge, we decided to do it even though it was not easy. Building a world-class refinery anywhere in the world is a huge task. It is capital-intensive and very demanding,” he said.
“To build ours, we collected over 2,700 hectares of land and pumped 65 million cubic metres of sand to stabilise the site. We installed over 250,000 foundation bars and laid millions of metres of piping, cabling, and wiring. At peak, we had over 60,000 people on site, of which 50,000 were Nigerians. We had these people working around the clock across hundreds of disciplines and nationalities,” he elaborated.
He then went on to highlight figures he asserts the Dangote Refinery can reach.
“The Dangote refinery can meet all of Nigeria’s demand for diesel and jet fuel and still have a surplus for exports, which can be used in valuable foreign exchange for Nigeria. The refinery can meet 90% of Nigeria’s PMS requirements.
His assessment stems from the fact that globally, the largest oil producers usually use their own domestic refineries rather than imports to supply their needs for petroleum products, which he explained.
Just over 8% of the petroleum products needed in the United States, for instance, are imported. It is evident that the majority of the main producers of crude oil import little more than 10% of their petroleum products from the United States.
