By Dipo Olowookere
A major component that separates crude oil into all the petroleum derivatives like Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), amongst others, the Crude Distillation Column, has arrived Lagos.
The equipment was ordered for by Africa’s richest man, Mr Aliko Dangote, for his Dangote Oil Refinery, located on the outskirt of the city.
An announcement made by Mr Dangote at the weekend noted that the major refinery tool is the largest single train crude distillation column in the world at the moment.
“This magnificent engineering masterpiece weighs 2250 MT (excluding internal trays); 112.5 m long; 14m wide and 13.75m tall and can fractionally distil 650,000 Barrels Per Stream Day,” Mr Dangote announced via his verified Twitter page.
However, the businessman did not specifically state when the crude oil distillation would be installed by engineers working on the project, which was initially expected to commence operations this month.
Business Post reports that the Dangote Oil Refinery is now scheduled to begin full operations in the first quarter of 2021. The project has the full support of Nigerian government.
It is anticipated that when completed, Nigeria may not need to import petrol into the country anymore. Every year, the country spends huge sum of money to bring in fuel into the country despite being one of the major producers of crude oil in the world.
The commodity, which is abundant in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, is taken outside of the country to be refined and then brought into Nigeria and then heavily subsidised for citizens to buy at a cheaper rate.
Adedapo Adesanya