Africa\u2019s biggest oil refinery has been opened in Nigeria, where it is hoped it will alleviate chronic fuel shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nigeria is a major oil producer but most of this is sent abroad while it has to import the refined fuel used in vehicles and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result the country often faces chronic fuel shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the problem that the $19bn (\u00a315.2bn) refinery, owned by Africa\u2019s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is intended to tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a game-changer for the Nigerian people,\u201d said President Muhammadu Buhari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plant, which is not yet operational, has the capacity to produce about 650,000 barrels of petroleum products a day \u2013 more than enough to supply the country\u2019s needs. It also includes a power station, deep seaport and fertiliser plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nigeria\u2019s existing refineries have been completely shut down for over three years owing to oil theft, pipeline vandalism and structural neglect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it works as planned, the plant could make a real change to the lives of Nigerians: \u201cEvery time there is fuel scarcity, I don\u2019t open my shop because there\u2019s no light [electricity] to work and I can\u2019t buy fuel for my generator,\u201d a young hairdresser from Lagos told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Monday\u2019s launch, Mr Dangote outlined his hopes for the refinery: \u201cOur first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy the nation\u2019s demand for quality products.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plant, which is not yet operational, has the capacity to produce about 650,000 barrels of petroleum products a day \u2013 more than enough to supply the country\u2019s needs. It also includes a power station, deep seaport and fertiliser plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nigeria\u2019s existing refineries have been completely shut down for over three years owing to oil theft, pipeline vandalism and structural neglect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it works as planned, the plant could make a real change to the lives of Nigerians: \u201cEvery time there is fuel scarcity, I don\u2019t open my shop because there\u2019s no light [electricity] to work and I can\u2019t buy fuel for my generator,\u201d a young hairdresser from Lagos told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Monday\u2019s launch, Mr Dangote outlined his hopes for the refinery: \u201cOur first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy the nation\u2019s demand for quality products.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it is not clear what impact the plant will have on the price of fuel in a country where retail prices are subsidised. The government says these subsidies will soon be removed \u2013 last year they took up at least a quarter of the national budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Dangote\u2019s plant in Lagos, which took nearly seven years to build, is said to be the world\u2019s largest single-train refinery, meaning the plant has one integrated distillery system which can produce a variety of products and petrochemicals, instead of having different units for each type of product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is one of the last major projects to be inaugurated by President Buhari, who steps down next week after serving two terms in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Buhari will hand power to Bola Tinubu, who won disputed presidential elections in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil and gas expert Henry Adigun told the BBC that Monday\u2019s launch was \u201cmore political than technical\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa\u2019s biggest oil refinery has been opened in Nigeria, where it is hoped it will alleviate chronic fuel shortages. Nigeria is a major oil producer but most of this is sent abroad while it has to import the refined fuel used in vehicles and elsewhere. As a result the country often faces chronic fuel shortages. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":33989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[1648,1411,2735,9467,5249,3820,3294,11337,5800,9127,3037,6569,5491,2264,8850,12138,6698,434,5549,10543,5441,11973,5081,10302,3805,1848,1396,11377,12103,10390,5278,11431,10722,9636,10097,9616,3954,10415,36,594,5140],"class_list":["post-33987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world-news","tag-africa","tag-aliko-dangote","tag-bbc","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-budget","tag-buhari","tag-dangote","tag-demand","tag-electricity","tag-february","tag-fertiliser","tag-fuel","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-henry","tag-import","tag-lagos","tag-nigeria","tag-nigerian","tag-nigerians","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-petroleum","tag-plant","tag-president","tag-president-buhari","tag-president-muhammadu-buhari","tag-presidential","tag-price","tag-prices","tag-quality","tag-refinery","tag-removed","tag-richest-man","tag-tinubu","tag-train","tag-will","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}