Aliko Dangote (file image)
Dangote: Our quality matches that of U.S.
By Valentine Amanze
Dangote Refinery has rolled out its first Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from its 650,000 barrels per day facility on Tuesday, a year after the former President Muhamadu Buhari launched it in Lagos in May 2023.
The billionaire owner of the refinery, Aliko Dangote, while disclosing this in Lagos on Tuesday September 3, 2024, declared, “It’s a celebration day for Nigerians.”
Dangote also assured the citizens of quality products, without dousing their fears on high price.
He said, “Nigerians are now going to have good petrol while the engines of your vehicles will last longer. You will not be having an engine issue, which a lot of us was having. It won’t happen at all.
“The quality here will match that of anywhere in the world; U.S., America; we will make sure that nobody will beat us in terms of quality.”
Dangote Refinery in Lagos.
Dangote also disclosed that his company was working on finalizing modalities with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) before the product would hit the market.
“As soon as we finalise with the NNPCL, our product will start going into the market.
“We will help to restore industry and manufacturing. We will begin real import substitution, which is what we have, you know, saving foreign exchange, earning foreign exchange, which will stabilise the naira, and it will also help bring down inflation and cost of living,” he said.
Last December, Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist, commenced operations at his $20 billion facility sited in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day.
The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
Also read: Reps to probe plot by IOCs to frustrate Dangote refinery
The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
The rollout of petrol by the Dangote Refinery followed the admission by the NNPCL that it owes “significant debt to petrol suppliers” and this poses a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational.
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