{"id":538,"date":"2013-05-03T18:20:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2013-05-03T18:20:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:20:12","slug":"alhaji-aliko-dangote-to-build-8bn-oil-refinery-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"Alhaji Aliko Dangote to build $8bn oil refinery in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa\u2019s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, plans to invest up to $8bn to build a Nigerian oil refinery with a capacity of around 400,000 barrels a day by late 2016, the tycoon told Reuters on Tuesday. (from onlinenigeria.com)\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This will almost double Nigeria\u2019s current refining capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will really help not only Nigeria but sub-Saharan Africa. There has not been a new refinery for a long time in sub-Saharan Africa,\u201d Dangote said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

The country currently has the capacity to produce some 445,000 barrels per day among four refineries, but they operate well below that owing to decades of mismanagement and corruption in Africa\u2019s leading energy producer.<\/p>\n

Nigeria, the continent\u2019s second-biggest economy, relies on subsidised imports for 80 per cent of its fuel needs.<\/p>\n

A surge in domestic capacity would be welcomed by investors in Nigeria, but it would cut into profits made by European refiners and oil traders who would lose part of that lucrative market.<\/p>\n

Dangote said the country\u2019s ability to import fuel would soon be challenged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn five years, when our population is over 200 million, we won\u2019t have the infrastructure to receive the amount of fuel we use. It has to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Past efforts to build refineries have often been delayed or cancelled, but analysts have said Dangote should be able to build a profitable Nigerian refinery, owing to his past successes in industry and his strong government connections.<\/p>\n

The Dangote Group\u2019s cement manufacturing, basic food processing and other industries have helped lift his personal fortune to $16.1bn from $2.1bn in 2010, according to the latest Forbes estimate.<\/p>\n

Nigeria has two refineries in its main Port Harcourt oil hub, one in the Niger Delta town of Warri, and one in Kaduna in the North that serve 170 million people. Not one of them functions at full capacity.<\/p>\n

Analysts have said previous attempts to get the refineries going have been held back by vested interests such as fuel importers profiting from the status quo. Dangote said this concerned him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who were supposed to invest in refineries, who understand the market, are benefiting from there being no refineries because of the fuel import business,\u201d he said. \u201cSome \u2026 are going to try to \u2026 interfere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s government subsidises fuel imports to keep pump prices well below the market rate at a cost of billions of dollars a year. Fuel subsidies are the single biggest item on the country\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Dangote said making a new refinery run at a profit would work even if the government failed to scrap the subsidised fuel price that has deterred others from investing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done our numbers and the numbers are okay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa\u2019s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, plans to invest up to $8bn to build a Nigerian oil refinery with a capacity of around 400,000 barrels a day by late 2016, the tycoon told Reuters on Tuesday. (from onlinenigeria.com) This will … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}