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Friday,
February 28, 2020 / 09:35 AM / By Dangote Group/ Header
Image Credit: Businessday
With a capacity of 3
million tonnes per annum, the plant has been classified as the biggest project
in the entire fertiliser industry history in the World
Dangote Fertiliser Limited has begun countdown to the
inauguration of its $2 billion Granulated Urea Fertiliser complex located
in the Dangote Free Zone.
With a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum, the
plant has been classified as the biggest project in the entire fertiliser
industry history in the World. Siapem of Italy is the Engineering, Procurement
and Supervision (EP) Contractor for the project, while Tata Consulting
Engineers, India, is the Project Management Consultants (PMC) for the project.
At this time, several critical sections of the plant
are going through various stages of pre-commissioning and test-run. Virtually
all the section of the plant such as Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea
Bulk Storage, Cooling Tower, Power Generator Plant, Granulation Plant, have all
been completed and are going through pre-testing.
Already, Dangote Feritiser has started receiving gas
supply from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited under the Gas
Sale and Purchase was Agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per
day (Scf/d) of natural gas to Dangote Fertiliser Limited.
The project, which will create thousands of direct and
indirect jobs in construction and related fields, will provide a major boost to
the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of fertiliser
in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when plant is in full
production.
Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio
Development & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar
Edwin said Nigeria will be able to save $0.5billion from import substitution
and provide $0.4 billion from exports of products from the fertiliser plant.
"Thus, the supply of fertiliser from the plant, will be enough for the Nigerian
market and neighbouring countries," he said.
Edwin said: "I am happy that by the time our
plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self sufficient in
fertiliser production and even have the capacity to export the products to
other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever
fertiliser that is available as they have no choice, but we need to know that
the fertiliser that will work in one State may not be suitable in another
State, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same
fertiliser you use for sorghum may not be the fertiliser you will use for sugar
cane."
He stated that the Dangote fertiliser project, which
is estimated to gulp $2billion is the largest granulated Urea fertiliser
complex to emerge in the entire fertiliser industry history in the world, with
its three million tonnes per annum capacity.
He pointed out that the fertiliser complex, which is
sited on 500 hectares of land has the capacity to expand as it is only
occupying a small fraction of the allotted portion.
Edwin added: "The management of the complex are
confident that the fertiliser business will deliver reasonable profit to the
company and its shareholders as it is projected that population growth and the
need for food production will jack up the consumption of Urea fertiliser
beginning from 2020 when production of the production would have commenced in
earnest.
"The current consumption of Urea estimated at a dismal
700,000 tonnes per annum by Nigerian farmers is said to be due to very poor usage
and is believed to be the cause of poor product yield, which threatens food
security in the country.
"By 2020, Nigerian population is projected to increase
to about 207 million which would lead to increased food production. Estimates
points out that around five million tonnes of fertilisers are required per year
in Nigeria in the next five to seven years bifurcated into 3.5 million
tonnes of Urea and 1.5 million tonnes of NPK while current production
levels in Nigeria are at 1.6 million tonnes by 2019."
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