Kenyan President William Ruto says the planned Dangote refinery in Lamu will be bigger than Nigeria’s 700,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, after visiting the Lagos facility and ordering officials to fast-track the Kenyan project.
Ruto said his visit to the $20 billion Dangote Refinery in Lagos gave him greater confidence in Kenya’s plans to establish a major petroleum refining facility in Lamu.
The Kenyan president visited the Lekki-based refinery on September 25, ahead of the planned groundbreaking of the Dangote refinery project in Kenya.
He said his government would remove administrative bottlenecks that could delay the project and accelerate the approvals required for construction.
“I just want to tell the Dangote family here that the government of Kenya is one hundred per cent behind your project, our project. We have already secured the land that is necessary for this,” Ruto said during the visit.
“We are working on all the other enablers to make sure that we don’t spend time on doing administrative bureaucratic stuff. The Kenyan government spend time on doing what we must do so that at the earliest opportunity we can refine products out of Lamu in Kenya,” he added.
Kenyan Refinery Has Planned 700,000 barrels per day Capacity
The proposed Lamu refinery is being designed to process up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to the report. That compares with the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, which has a stated crude refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
Ruto however said the Kenyan facility would be bigger than the Nigerian refinery stating “The refinery in Nigeria is a massive investment with a crude oil refining capacity of 700,000 barrels a day and produces more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel every day,”
He also highlighted the infrastructure supporting the Lagos refinery, including 120 kilometres of subsea cables used to transport crude from ships to the facility.
“This huge achievement is a testament to what African governments, investors and financial institutions can do together. The refinery, whose construction we launch in Kenya next week, will be bigger,” Ruto said.
Dangote Group Chairman Aliko Dangote further told Ruto that the Kenyan project would incorporate equipment and processing systems that are not currently present at the Lagos refinery.
He cited a heavier residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC), as well as a coker and a vacuum distillation unit (VDU). According to Dangote, the equipment configuration will reflect the characteristics of the crude oil expected to be processed at the Kenyan facility.
“So, this will give you a sense of an idea of what we are going to have in Kenya. But Kenya will be a little bit bigger than what you are going to see,” Dangote said.
