By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Dangote Refinery being constructed in Lekki, Lagos at a cost of $15 billion will be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility when completed. It will also be the fifth largest company in Africa.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man by far, plans to employ 17,000 new workers in his eponymous refinery to raise the workforce from 40,000 to 57,000 in a giant vision that also seeks to end Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports.
Dangote is said to have invested over $7 billion in the refinery, just over 60 per cent of his total net worth currently valued at $11.6 billion, according to Forbes.
The Dangote Group is both the largest integrated company in Africa and the biggest private employer in Nigeria with 30,000 workers spread across subsidiaries in cement, salt, and sugar, manufacturing and packaging plants.
If the Group succeeds in its ambition to create 750,000 new jobs in the next few years and thereafter raise it to one million, it will overtake the federal government as the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria.
Ranking among refineries elsewhere
Dangote Refinery is expected to refine 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is already developing oil and gas human capacity for future oil projects in Nigeria, facilitated by the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Nairametrics reports that second to Dangote Refinery in Africa would be Egypt’s Bashandyoil refinery expected to produce 300,000 bpd but is also under construction.
In Asia, Dangote Refinery will be ranked sixth. In China, only Sinopec Zhenhai Refinery comes close with 345,000 bpd.
Dangote Refinery’s capacity outperforms refineries in Saudi Arabia where the largest, controlled by Aramco, is Ras Tanura Refinery (550,000 bpd).
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dangote Refinery will be ranked second after Ruwais Refinery (Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company) which produces 817,000 bpd.
In Iran, Dangote Refinery will outperform Abadan Refinery, which has the largest capacity in the country (450,000 bpd).
In Singapore, ExxonMobil Jurong Island Refinery, the largest in the country with 605,000 bpd, performs below Dangote Refinery. In South Korea, Dangote will be ranked fifth, outperforming one out of the five refineries in the country.
In Europe, Dangote Refinery outperforms all major refineries own by multinationals like ExxonMobil, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Total S.A, and Vitol.
JSC Antipinsky Refinery in Russia (896,500 bpd) has capacity greater than Dangote Refinery. But Dangote outperforms all major refineries in North and Central America.
In the United States, the refinery that comes close is the popular Port Arthur Refinery in Texas (636,500 bpd), owned by Motiva Enterprises, an American company that operates as a fully owned affiliate of Saudi Aramco.
With Paraguana Refinery Complex (956,000 bpd) as the world’s third-largest refinery located in Venezuela, Dangote will come in second in South America.
Ranking among companies in Nigeria
According to Nairametrics, Dangote Refinery, valued at $19 billion, represents ₦9.5 trillion using the Nigerian parallel market rate of ₦500 to $1.
Compared to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) equity market capitalisation, the value of Dangote Refinery is almost half equity market capitalisation, approximately 48 per cent of the value.
In half year ended June 30 (H1 2021), Stocks Worth Over One Trillion (SWOOT) – which include Dangote Cement, MTN, Airtel Nigeria, BUA Cement, and Nestle Nigeria – had a combined valuation of ₦13.3 trillion.
Compared to Dangote Refinery, although altogether they are more valuable, the refinery takes up 72 per cent of the total value of SWOOTs.
As for the top five first-tier banks in Nigeria, FUGAZ – acronym for FirstBank, United Bank of Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, and Zenith Bank – Dangote Refinery is bigger than all their capitalisations put together by 389 per cent.
Ranking among companies worldwide
In the global oil and gas industry, Dangote Refinery will be ranked 30th, dethroning Austria’s multinational integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company, OMV.
Dangote Refinery is the largest oil and gas firm in Africa with South Africa’s Sasol coming in second with a market capitalisation of $9.75 billion. Sasol is ranked 44th in the world, according to companiesmarketcap.com, quoted by Nairametrics.
Dangote Refinery will be ranked the fifth largest company in Africa, atop Anglo American Platinum, the world’s largest primary producer of platinum, accounting for about 38 per cent of the world’s annual supply, valued at $13.05 billion.
In the US, Dangote Refinery will be ranked 422nd, dethroning Cincinnati Financial Corporation, an American insurance firm that offers property and casualty insurance.
The refinery will be bigger than some popular and well-known companies such as Domino’s Pizza ($18.11 billion), United Airlines ($16.91 billion), GameStop ($15.15 billion), American Airlines ($13.60 billion), McAfee ($12.03 billion), and Western Union ($9.40 billion).
In the United Kingdom, Dangote Refinery will be ranked 34th, bigger than EasyJet valued at $5.95 billion.
In China, the refinery will be ranked 92nd, more valuable than China’s Hua Xia Bank worth $14.74 billion. In Saudi Arabia, it will be ranked ninth, taking the spot from Saudi British Bank valued at $17.25 billion.
Foreign exchange earner
When Dangote Refinery becomes fully operational it will be the largest refinery in Africa, the fifth largest company on the continent by market capitalisation, and the largest single-train refinery in the world.
It will put Nigeria in the spotlight for crude oil refining, competing with world refining superpowers in the US, China, and Saudi Arabia.
Last year, Dangote Industries Group Executive Director (Strategy and Capital Projects), Devakumar Edwin, told journalists that the refinery is a strategic win for the Nigerian economy with capacity to create at least 250,000 jobs.
The refinery alone will outproduce Nigeria’s three major refineries in Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt which have a combined capacity of 445,000 bpd.
Locally refined petroleum products will serve the Nigerian market (reduce foreign exchange expended on fuel imports) and also serve international markets, earning more forex for the country.
