Dangote Group Signs $400m Equipment Deal for Refinery Expansion

As part of its grand plan to become to become the largest refinery in the world, the Dangote Group has made a bold move to quicken the expansion of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.

Consequently, it has signed a $400 million construction equipment deal with XCMG Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading manufacturers of construction machinery, which aims at accelerating the expansion ambition.

In a statement, the company said the deal would enable the Group to acquire a wide range of advanced construction equipment to support ongoing and forthcoming projects across refining, petrochemicals, agriculture and large-scale infrastructure development.

The new equipment, the company emphasized, will complement existing assets deployed for the refinery expansion. Barring any unforeseen delay, the expansion is expected to be concluded within three years.

Beyond refining, the expansion programme also  aims to increase the production of polypropylene from 900,000 metric tonnes per annum to 2.4 million metric tonnes.

With the expansion, the company further enthused, urea capacity in Nigeria will be tripled, rising from 3 million to 9 million metric tonnes per annum, in addition to the 3 million metric tonnes per annum capacity in Ethiopia, strengthening the Group’s position as the largest urea producer globally.

That’s not all. Production capacity for Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) will also be increased to 400,000 metric tonnes per annum, positioning the Group as the largest producer in Africa and strengthening supply to the detergent and cleaning agents manufacturing industry. Additional base oil production capacity also forms part of the broader expansion programme.