Dangote Refinery, Lagos

Air Liquide is supplying two steam methane reformer (SMR) units for the Dangote oil refinery. Credit: Air Liquide Engineering & Construction.

The project includes the development of a marine facility with jetty and harbour facilities. Credit: C&I Leasing.

The Nigerian refinery will produce Euro-V quality gasoline, diesel and other petrochemical products. Credit: MAN Diesel & Turbo.

Dangote Oil Refinery Company (Dangote) is constructing an integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, Nigeria. The refinery is expected to be the world’s biggest single-train facility, upon commissioning in 2021.

Estimated to cost $18bn, the refinery will produce Euro-V quality gasoline and diesel, as well as jet fuel and polypropylene. The project is expected to generate 4,000 direct and 145,000 indirect jobs.

Nigeria is estimated to hold approximately 37 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second-largest reserves in Africa. However, the country imports the majority of its refined products due to lack of domestic refining capacity.

The new refinery will double Nigeria’s refining capacity and help in meeting the increasing demand for fuels, while providing cost savings.

The refinery site covers an area of 2,635ha on the Lekki Free Zone near the Lekki Lagoon. This location will allow for the transhipment of refined petroleum products to international markets.

The processing facilities at the refinery will include a crude distillation unit (CDU) and associated facilities, mild hydrocracking (MHC) unit, residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC), naphtha hydrotreater, and RFCC gasoline hydrodesulfurisation (HDS) unit, as well as alkylation units.

Sulphur recovery and hydrogen generation facilities, and a polypropylene unit will also be included. The hydrogen generation complex will contain two steam methane reformer (SMR) units. These will generate 200,000Nm³/h of hydrogen and steam, which will be used to produce sulphur-free fuels.

An additional set of processing units will be supplied by DuPont to produce clean fuels. These units include a STRATCO® alkylation unit, a MECS® sulphuric acid regeneration (SAR) unit, a MECS® DynaWave® sulphur recovery unit and a BELCO® EDV® fluid catalytic cracking unit will also be included.

The refinery will feature infrastructure facilities such as a pipeline system, access roads, tank storage facilities and crude and product-handling facilities. A marine terminal, including a breakwater, jetty and harbour, will also become part of the refinery.

An administrative building, guardhouses, fire station and pump stations will be constructed.

The complex will also include a fertiliser plant, which uses by-products from the refinery as raw materials.

The Dangote refinery will have an annual refining capacity of 10.4 million tonnes (Mt) of gasoline, in addition to 4.6Mt of diesel and 4Mt of jet fuel.

It will also produce 0.69Mt of polypropylene, 0.24Mt of propane, 32,000t of sulphur and 0.5Mt of carbon black feed.

The Dangote oil refinery is being funded with $3bn equity and $6bn loan capital. A consortium of local and international banks led by the Standard Chartered Bank provided a $3.3bn loan facility.

The United States Trade and Development Agency offered a N251.3bn ($0.997m) training grant to develop human resources for operating the refinery.

Engineers India was awarded the engineering, construction and procurement contract for the refinery.

UOP was contracted to supply catalyst regeneration and dryer regeneration control systems, column trays, heat exchanger tubes, a modular CCR unit, and catalyst coolers, among other equipment.

C&I Leasing is responsible for providing transportation and installation services for the mooring systems and subsea pipelines of the refinery.

The Hang Xiao Steel Structure Company was awarded a $112m contract to supply steel structure for the refinery.

The Jan De Nul Group was responsible for carrying out land reclamation works. MAN Diesel & Turbo is supplying two compressor trains, while Air Liquide Engineering & Construction is supplying the SMR units.

Other suppliers involved in the project include Fabtech (18 columns), Schneider Electric (process automation systems), SOFEC (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring buoys) and WABAG (raw water treatment plant).

Boldrocchi delivered eight diverter damper systems for six GE gas turbines of the Dangote Refinery, under a contract signed in 2016.