The Dangote Group says it has signed a $400 million construction equipment agreement with XCMG Construction Machinery Company Limited, one of China’s leading manufacturers of construction machinery, in a move set to accelerate the expansion of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day, positioning it to become the largest refinery in the world.
The agreement, it was stated, will enable the group to acquire an additional wide range of advanced construction equipment to support ongoing and forthcoming projects across refining, petrochemicals, agriculture and large-scale infrastructure development.
In a statement on Monday, the Dangote Group said the new equipment will complement existing assets deployed for the refinery expansion, which is expected to be completed within three years.
In the statement, the group described the agreement as a strategic investment aimed at deepening its construction footprint and accelerating its ambition to build a $100bn enterprise by 2030.
“The additional equipment we are acquiring under this partnership will significantly enhance execution across our projects. With this investment, we are positioning ourselves to become the number one construction company in the world,” the statement partly read.
Dangote Group added that it is currently accelerating expansion and regional market development as it advances toward its long-term vision of building a $100bn enterprise by 2030.
“Beyond refining, the expansion programme will see polypropylene production increase from 900,000 metric tonnes per annum to 2.4 million metric tonnes per annum. Urea capacity in Nigeria will be tripled 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.
“Production capacity for Linear Alkyl Benzene 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,” the group said.
Recall that the Dangote refinery recently announced that it had reached its current nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, saying it now has the capacity to pump 75 million litres of petrol per day.
In January, the refinery outpaced importers, supplying over 40 million litres of petrol daily, taking 62 per cent of the market share last month.
