Dangote Fertiliser Limited has started pre-testing of its US$2bn granulated urea fertiliser complex before inauguration
The complex is located in the Dangote Free Zone.
With a capacity of three 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.
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 scf per day 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.
Devakumar Edwin, group executive director, strategy, portfolio development and capital projects, Dangote Industries Limited, said that Nigeria will be able to save US$500mn from import substitution and provide US$400mn from exports of products from the fertiliser plant.
He stated that the Dangote fertiliser project, which is estimated to gulp US$2bn, 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.
“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 207mn 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 3.5mn tonnes of Urea and 1.5mn tonnes of NPK while current production levels in Nigeria are at 1.6mn tonnes by 2019.”
