By Ayomide Otitoju
Africa’s richest businessman, Aliko Dangote, will build a 700,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) oil refinery in Kenya, with the facility to be located in Lamu, according to Dangote Industries Limited.
The company’s Vice President for Oil and Gas, Edwin Devakumar, said the refinery will be constructed on Lamu Island, off Kenya’s coast, with completion expected within 30 months.
The announcement ends speculation over the location of the proposed East African refinery, which had also considered Tanzania as a potential host.
Dangote recently visited Tanzania, where he met with President Samia Suluhu Hassan to explain the commercial and technical reasons behind the decision to site the refinery in Lamu. He also invited Tanzania to participate in the investment.
The Nigerian industrialist had previously indicated that Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa was under consideration before confirming Lamu as the preferred location.
The proposed refinery is expected to complement Dangote’s 650,000-bpd refinery in Lagos, Nigeria, which commenced operations in 2024 and has significantly reduced the country’s dependence on imported refined petroleum products.
Dangote Industries also plans to expand the Lagos refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028, a move that would make it the world’s largest refinery.
The company has continued to expand its export footprint, supplying aviation fuel to markets including the United States, Europe and Brazil, while also exporting refined petroleum products to several African countries.
Earlier this year, the Dangote Refinery disclosed that it had sold 12 cargoes, totalling 456,000 tonnes of refined products, to Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo.Copyright TRUSTAFRICA NEWS.
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