Nigeria’s Dangote Industries Ltd. said it expects urea from its new plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, about 50 km east of Central Lagos, to be available on the market by September, according to a report by the country’s daily newspaper The Punch, citing Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development, and Capital Projects Devakumar Edwin.
The first production units of the new ammonia-urea complex are in the commissioning phase following the completion of the test phase, according to the report. These units comprise a 2,200 mt/d ammonia unit, a 3,850 mt/d urea unit, and a 3,850 mt/d urea granulation unit, with capacity to produce some 1.5 million mt/y of granular urea once fully ramped up.
Edwin said it is hoped the power turbines could be started in the next 10 days, once steam blowing is over, and then within 90 days of power coming it, urea could be on the market.
The report cited the Dangote executive as conceding that it is “a tight schedule,” but he was confident it could be achieved. However, some market sources are circumspect, believing the company’s latest production start-up target is overly optimistic.
The project certainly has seen serial delays. Dangote originally targeted first urea production in late 2018, but those start-up plans were pushed back partly due to gas supply issues (GM Oct. 12, 2018).
Most recently, the inauguration of the plant was scheduled to take place last month. Dangote said in February several critical sections of the plant were going through various stages of pre-commissioning and test-run, and that the plant had started receiving gas supply from Chevron Nigeria Ltd. (CNL) and the Nigerian Gas Co. (GM Feb. 28, p.28).
Edwin cited the COVID-19 pandemic and “some technical challenges” as behind the delayed May inauguration of the plant, according to this week’s report. But he now does not expect the impact of these going forward to be “very significant.”
About 25 percent of the plant’s granular urea output will go to meet domestic consumption, and 75 percent of the output will be marketed for export. Initial product is expected to go to the domestic market.
The Dangote plant ultimately will have production capacity to produce some 3 million mt/y of granular urea, with three further units under development for the production of 2,200 mt/d of ammonia, 3,850 mt/d of urea, and 3,850 mt/d urea granulation capacity.