Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, has announced plans to increase his refinery’s storage capacity by 600 million litres. Dangote made the announcement while delivering a speech at the African Export and Import (Afrexim) bank Annual Meetings and Afri-Caribbean Trade & Investment Forum held in Nassau, Bahamas. This move, he claims, this will allow the refinery to have 5.3 billion litres of storage capacity. Currently, the Dangote Petrochemical Refinery has a fuel storage capacity of 4.78 billion litres.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, he was quizzed on whether his refinery will lower the price of petrol at the pump, which is currently about ₦700 per litre, Dangote gave no definite answer, but was quick to point out how the price of diesel dropped from ₦1,700 to ₦1,200 as his fuel made its way into the market.
“The issue of gasoline is certainly a different issue. That one is being dealt with by the government. But let me give you an example. In the diesel, which the industries, transporters and everybody consume; when we first started, it was N1,700, and the dollar conversion was about N1,200 then. Immediately when we started, within two weeks we brought down the price to N1,000. We took it from N1,700 to N1,200 and from N1,200 to N1,700, we have given more than 60 per cent drop in price.
“With the currency now back up to about N1,500 per dollar, the price is still below N1,200. That’s a big improvement, from N1,700 to N1,200. And the diesel is available, we are not living from hand to mouth anymore,” Dangote replied.
The business mogul also emphasized the strategic importance of the refinery for Nigeria’s petroleum product reserves, highlighting the lack of strategic reserves for petrol in the country.
He noted: “The country doesn’t have strategic reserves in terms of petrol, which is very dangerous. But in our plant now, when you came, we had only 4.78 billion litres of various tankage capacity. But right now, we’re adding another 600 million.
“So effectively, as we go forward, the refinery will be the strategic reserve of the country in terms of petroleum products.”
Addressing the obstacles from international oil companies, Dangote said:
“In a system where, for 35 years, people are used to counting good money, and all of a sudden, they see that the days of counting that money have come to an end, you don’t expect them to pray for you. Of course, you expect them to fight back.
“And I think that is the process that we’re now really going through. But the truth is that, yes, the country, the sub-region, and also the continent, of sub-Saharan Africa, need this refinery. “So, you expect them to fight through non-supply of crude, non-purchase of the product, but I think it’s all temporary. We’ll get there.”
