Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the multi-billion dollar Dangote oil refinery in two weeks, a presidency spokesperson said on Sunday, setting up the plant for its first production since construction started in 2016, said Reuters.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, sees the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery - being built by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote's Dangote Group - as a solution to ending the country's reliance on imports for nearly all of its refined petroleum products.
Spokesperson Bashir Ahmad said Buhari will commission the refinery, near Lagos, on May 22, a week before he is due to leave office after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution.
A spokesperson for Dangote confirmed the timing of the commissioning but did not give details.
The Dangote refinery's cost grew to USD19 B from initial estimates of between USD12 B and USD14 B, after years of delays.
We remind, Dangote Industries Limited has completed more than half of a planned USD720.82 MM bond issue to fund its mega-refinery on the outskirts of Lagos. Chiejina said the company had raised 187.5 B naira in the series one issuance, completed last month, and would announce a date for a second series as soon as possible. Proceeds will go toward the USD1.1 B that the company needed as of January for the project, which many view as the solution to years of sclerotic fuel supply in Africa's most populous nation.
mrchub.com