Nigeria, the biggest oil producer in Africa, has several refineries that are essential to the nation’s oil and gas industry.
To lessen the excessive reliance on imported refined products, these facilities have been renovated and upgraded over time.
The locations, capacities, and most recent advancements of Nigeria’s refineries are highlighted extensively:
The 650,000 barrels per day (BPD) Dangote Petroleum Refinery is an integrated refinery project located in the Lekki Free Zone, close to Lagos, Nigeria.
The refinery was commissioned in May 2023 and cost about $19 billion. Oil refining began in late December 2023, and by early May 2024, products were being distributed to both domestic and foreign markets.
The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company refinery, built in 1980 at a cost of $525 million, has an initial capacity of 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) and supplies petroleum products to Northern Nigeria.
The capacity was doubled to 100,000 bpd in 1983 with the addition of a second 50,000 bpd crude plant intended only for producing lubricating oils. The first crude unit’s capacity was further raised to 60,000 bpd by 1986. With these additions, the refinery’s maximum capacity is now 110,000 bpd.
With a daily capacity to refine 60,000 barrels of oil, the first refinery in Port Harcourt was built and put into service in 1965. Approximately £12 million was invested in its construction by Shell BP then.
Throughout the 1990s, the refinery’s output gradually decreased after initially operating at over 50% of its designed capacity.
The refinery’s mechanical completion and flare startup were announced by Senator Keineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, in December of last year.
After spending $850 million on construction, the federal government opened the New Port Harcourt refinery in 1985 with a total of 150,000 barrels of oil.
The total refining capacity of the Port Harcourt plants grew to 210,000 barrels per day with the commissioning of the New Port Harcourt refinery.
Established in 1978, this refinery is situated in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. Warri refinery is a sophisticated conversion refinery that can produce 125,000 barrels per day of nameplate distillation.
A petrochemical facility with 18,000 MA of carbon black and 13,000 MTA of polypropylene manufacturing capacity was put into service in 1988 and is part of the refinery complex. The refinery provides goods to markets in Nigeria’s southwest and south.
The Walter Smith refinery, which can process 5,000 barrels of oil per day, is located in Imo State. The refinery started operations in 2020 and plans to expand its capacity to 50,000 bpd in the future years.
The Azikel refinery, under construction in Yenogia, Bayelsa state is the nation’s first privately developed hydro-skimming refinery.
A total of 12,000 barrels per day will be produced at the new refinery. Together with a few byproducts, it will refine Gbarain condensate and Bonny Sweet light crude to create premium petroleum products.
Beginning as a 1,000 BOPD topping plant in 2012, the Ogbele refinery facility produced 85,860 liters of diesel per day from 540 BOPD of oil.
Near the end of 2019, a second train with 5,000 BOPD was installed. It can produce diesel, marine diesel, DPK, naphtha, and high pour fuel oil.
