Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Femi Otedola has congratulated the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, following the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s attainment of its full production capacity of 650000 barrels per day.
The refinery recently announced that it had reached its full nameplate capacity after restoring and optimising its Crude Distillation Unit and Motor Spirit production block. The company described the development as a global first for a single train refinery of its scale and a major milestone for Africa’s largest oil refining facility.
According to the management, the refinery has commenced a 72 hour intensive performance test run in collaboration with its licensor UOP. The exercise is aimed at validating operational stability, efficiency, and compliance with global standards. The milestone followed a scheduled maintenance exercise on the Crude Distillation Unit and MS Block, after which both units were stabilised and optimised for steady state operations.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, David Bird, said the seamless integration of the units demonstrates the refinery’s engineering depth and operational resilience.
Reacting via his verified X handle, Otedola described the achievement as transformational for Nigeria and Africa. He noted that supplying up to 75 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit daily would significantly reshape the nation’s energy narrative and conserve foreign exchange.
Otedola added that domestic refining after decades of reliance on imports would ease pressure on the foreign exchange market and strengthen the naira. He also revealed plans for a 12 billion dollar expansion to increase refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day, alongside production of polypropylene and Linear Alkyl Benzene.
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