By Dipo Olowookere
The Vice President for Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Devakumar Edwin, has highlighted the business strategy of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals located in Lagos.
Mr Edwin, while demystifying talks around the monopoly tag on the owner of the company, Mr Aliko Dangote, said someone has to start a project before others follow.
“Nigeria was one of the largest importers of cement, then we started manufacturing cement and then we became exporters, the same thing applies to sugar, salt and now fertiliser. This breakthrough opened the doors for other investors in those industries and Nigeria is better for it.
“What motivates Mr Dangote is his sheer interest in the Nigerian project. It is true, we are in business to make money but the question is where is the money going? Every money Dangote is making goes back to the Nigeria economy, from cement to salt, sugar, and fertiliser.
“The business strategy of the Dangote Refinery is to minimise the energy cost and the overall cost of production; build the most environmentally friendly; maximise value addition; maximise gasoline which is in high demand with about 55 per cent of the production capacity compared to 22 per cent of the existing refineries in Nigeria; strategically located marine infrastructure for crude receipt and product evacuation; state-of-the-art technology; produce Euro V products; provide crude flexibility and create a market of $21 billion per annum of Nigerian crude,” he said during a visit of the league of engineering bodies in Nigeria to the facility over the weekend.
The group comprised the National Society of Engineers (NSE), the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Association of Consulting Engineering in Nigeria (ACEN), and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
The president of NSE, Mrs Margaret Oguntala, described the Dangote Refinery as “mind-blowing,” saying, “What I see here today will blow the mind of any engineer; it is just like the movies.”
Speaking on behalf of NAE, Prof. Azikwe Peter Onwualu charged Mr Dangote to ignore naysayers, noting that, “Whatever you are doing, keep it up.”
The president of COREN, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, said the Dangote Refinery has proven that “Nigerians are no less in engineering globally.”