It is a joyful day of long awaited hope for Nigerians and a historic milestone for the nation’s downstream sector in witnessing this day - the commencement of 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery Production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as fuel in Nigeria.

Disclosing the latest update of this $20 billion monumental edifice, the Chairman of Dangote Group Alhaji Aliko Dangote expressed his unreserved profound eulogies to the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, His excellency Ahmed Bola Tinubu for his unalloyed support of his administration in seeing that this long overdue project which was also his dream has finally come to fruition.

“Most of my appreciation goes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government who have given us hope and support and you know without the support of the government we would not be here.

“I want to put on record to thank the Governor of Lagos State for his marvelous job for giving us all the support. You know 10 years ago there was nothing here and this is what you call a dream come true,” Dangote expressed.

“President Ahmed Bola Tinubu then as a governor of Lagos State, dreamt about establishing this project about 19 to 20 years ago and my first time of coming to this site was in 2015 but now you can see what a dream can actually do,” He added

“Alhaji Dangote further described the quality of the Premium Motor Spirit currently being streamed out of the refinery as Euro five (5) grade and according to global quality standard, it is assumed to be of the highest quality of fuel available at the global market.

“Euro five PMS can actually save your engine and give your engine the best performance and it cannot be as the normal one, and our diesel is less dense and is like water and different from what people have ever seen before and that is what is called Euro 5 diesel. Our diesel has less than 10 ppm, which will help engines, vehicles, and generators last much longer and will not pollute the health of people or the environment. Our lab is not number two; it is the number one lab in the world,” Dangote asserted

. On when the PMS will get to the end-users which are the specially the commercial motorists and private individuals on a stipulated product price.

“The PMS can be in the filling stations in the next 48 hours depending on NNPC. It is an arrangement which is designed and approved by the Federal Executive Council led by Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

“As soon as it is finalized, which he (Tinubu) is pushing, once we finish with NNPC, it can be today, it can be tomorrow, we are ready to roll into the market,” He said

Dangote further stated that the takeoff of Dangote Refinery will go a long way in stabilizing the country’s foreign exchange market as the country will no longer depend on importation of these petroleum products.

“This refinery will actually change the whole narrative not only of Nigeria but the entire sub-Saharan African. The capacity that we have will not only meet up the Nigeria demand, but also meet up the demand of sub-Sahara Africa.  We will now be saving our national foreign exchange and also earning foreign which is stability of naira and will also bring down inflation and cost of living,” Dangote further stated

Dangote also disclosed that the petrochemical arm of the refinery will soon begin production of Polypropylene into the country which he ascribed as being in high demand. He assured the industries in need of this raw material that the current era of struggling for foreign currencies is over.

“Let me assure you of one thing in what we call high demand of Polypropylene and there is high demand of Polypropylene in the country. Nigeria from October will not import any Polypropylene which is a quarter of a million tons. No more import of Polypropylene, we will satisfy the market 100%.  

The Dangote Refinery was commissioned in May 2023. Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote has admitted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited owns a 7.2% stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, and not a 20% stake as initially announced before the inauguration of the facility at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.