Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals: Water, Effluent & Process Profile

Water & effluent

Intake source: river
Intake source note: Raw water comes from the adjacent Lekki Lagoon, a coastal lagoon fed by the Osun River (schema has no 'lagoon' option). No seawater desalination plant was found in any public source; the site water system is lagoon RWTP plus effluent recycling. The only confirmed seawater link is the dewatering pipelines to the Atlantic used during reclamation.
Cooling: cooling towers
Raw water quality: Lekki Lagoon is described as shallow and freshwater, but salinity has been reported to vary up to several percent in the dry season (2006-2008 survey, figure unverified). WABAG designed the RWTP to cope with seasonal fluctuation. Groundwater on the Lekki peninsula shows seawater intrusion.
Not public (raw water quality): No sourced raw-water analysis (TDS, chloride, turbidity, organics by season). Request the RWTP design-basis analysis.
Effluent treatment: biological
Effluent treatment note: Physical, chemical and biological treatment, then tertiary UF and RO for reuse: SBR, MARAPUR-MBR, BIOPUR, UF, RO, condensate polishing (WABAG). Effectively tertiary with partial recycle; not ZLD.
Not public (discharge to): Final discharge point (Atlantic outfall or lagoon) and volume not published. RO reject and blowdown must go somewhere.
Discharge regime: Nigerian petroleum refinery effluent falls under EGASPIN (DPR 2002, rev. 2018; now administered by NMDPRA for midstream/downstream). Table IV-1 sets discharge limits for treated refinery wastewater (pH, temperature, oil/grease, TDS, TSS, COD, BOD, sulphide, phenol, metals). The numeric refinery limits were not retrieved from a primary source; they are null here. Site permit number and consent limits are not public. NESREA's role inside a free zone for a petroleum facility is not established.
Sources: wabag.com; wabag.com; researchgate.net; iea.org; ogj.com

Known issues

Fire at the effluent treatment plant on 26 Jun 2024. The company called it minor with no casualties; the ETP's status afterwards was not disclosed.

Site, ownership & capacity

Owners

Name	Basis	Note	Source	Share pct
Dangote Group / Dangote Industries	inferred	Residual after NNPC 7.2%, i.e. about 92.8% before the September 2026 IPO; not stated directly by a source. IPO of 4.1 billion shares at NGN 525 went live 14 Sep 2026 and will dilute this.	en.wikipedia.org
NNPC Ltd		Cut from an agreed 20% to the paid-up 7.2% in mid-2024 (OGJ 2023 still shows 20%). NNPC later said it planned to raise the stake back to 20%; in May 2026 Dangote was reported to have rejected that offer.	channelstv.com	7.2

Country

Nigeria

Region

Lagos State

Town

Ibeju-Lekki, Lekki Free Trade Zone

Lat

6.4528

Lon

4.0011

Coastal

Yes

Water body

Atlantic Ocean (Gulf of Guinea) to the south; Lekki Lagoon to the north

Not public

Finished grade level not published. Reports say only that the swamp was raised about 1.5 m by sand fill.

Sources

en.wikipedia.org

Capacity

Crude bpd: 650,000
Crude bpd note: Nameplate is 650,000 bpd, single train. The company now quotes 700,000 bpd (tested). Expansion target is 1.4 million bpd.
Nelson complexity: 10.5
Sources: en.wikipedia.org; refinery.dangote.com; hydrocarbonprocessing.com

Process units

Unit	Capacity	Not public	Year	Source	Licensor
CDU	650,000 b/d combined crude-vacuum distillation, single train. Crude column 112 m tall, about 2,000-2,350 t (sources differ).	The CDU licensor is not confirmed by a primary source. Search summaries name Honeywell UOP, but OGJ lists UOP only for RFCC, CCR, Unicracking and Penex.	2023	ogj.com
VDU	Combined with the CDU (crude-vacuum distillation, 650,000 b/d)		2023	ogj.com
FCC	RFCC (residue FCC), 10 million tpy, quoted as 200,000-204,000 b/d. Regenerator about 3,000 t, reported as the heaviest refinery regenerator in the world.		2024	ogj.com; hydrocarbonprocessing.com	Honeywell UOP
hydrocracker	Mild hydrocracking, more than 7 million tpy (Unicracking)		2023	ogj.com	Honeywell UOP
reformer	Continuous catalytic reforming (CCR); capacity not published			ogj.com	Honeywell UOP
isomerisation	Penex; capacity not published			ogj.com	Honeywell UOP
HDS/HDT	Naphtha hydrofining; capacity not published. Other distillate or gasoline hydrotreaters are not itemised in public sources, although products are made to Euro V.			ogj.com
alkylation	27,000 b/sd, sulphuric acid (STRATCO), with a 260 t/d MECS spent-acid regeneration unit			ogj.com	DuPont Clean Technologies (STRATCO / MECS)
hydrogen plant	200,000 Nm3/h (steam methane reforming)			ogj.com	Air Liquide
SRU	2 x 115 t/d	SRU licensor and tail-gas treatment type not published		ogj.com
amine		Amine regeneration is not itemised publicly. It is implied by the hydroprocessing and SRUs but has no source.
sour water stripper		Not itemised publicly
polypropylene (not in schema enum)	830,000 tpy in two lines of 500,000 and 330,000 tpy (company figure 830 KTPA; some press give 900,000 tpy). Production started March 2025.	PP process licensor not found	2025	refinery.dangote.com; spglobal.com
captive power (not in schema enum)	435 MW combined-cycle gas turbine plant (off-grid)	Vendor of the original gas turbines not confirmed	2023	nairametrics.com

Known equipment

Item	Not public	Detail	Source	Vendor
desalter	No public source gives the desalter vendor, number of stages or configuration. Obtain from EIL/UOP engineering documents or site procurement.
column		Crude distillation column, 112 m, 2,000-2,350 t, installed 2019	en.wikipedia.org; mammoet.com
separator		RFCC regenerator, about 3,000 t, moved about 10 km by road from the dedicated jetty. Mammoet handled the heavy lifting and haulage; total components moved exceeded 52,000 t.	mammoet.com	Mammoet (heavy lift and transport)
WWTP unit		Integrated water package: raw water treatment of Lekki Lagoon water; effluent treatment with SBR, MARAPUR-MBR, UF, RO and BIOPUR; demineralisation and condensate polishing. 26.5 MLD of treated effluent is reused as DM water. Cooling tower and boiler blowdown are polished through RO-based demin. Order value USD 105.5 million.	wabag.com; wabag.com	VA Tech WABAG
cooling tower		Cooling towers are implied by WABAG's reference to cooling tower blowdown recycling. Number and duty are not published.	wabag.com
compressor		Eight gas turbine-generator packages for the expansion, ordered July 2026. Earlier reporting describes eight GTs of 34.5 MW each plus four steam turbines, 570 MW total.	ogj.com	Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), expansion GTs
heater		Process automation and control: Schneider Electric. Planning software: AspenTech. (Heater data not published; this row records control-system vendors, which the schema has no slot for.)	ogj.com	Schneider Electric; Aspen Technology

Feed

Crude slate

Nigerian domestic grades via NNPC (first cargo Agbami, 1 MMbbl, Dec 2023). Nigerian crude was about 91-96% of receipts in Apr-May 2026.
US WTI Midland: 83% of non-domestic barrels in 2025 and over 200 kb/d in Feb-Mar 2026, then none by Apr 2026. One Oct 2026 cargo was reported via NNPC.
Occasional cargoes from Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, Brazil, Cameroon (Ebome), Guyana (Payara Gold) and Libya (Sharara)
Lighter crude (API 37-39) was run in early 2026 to protect the RFCC

Not public

No design crude assay or blend API, sulphur, TAN or salt has been published. Nigerian light sweets and WTI Midland are low-sulphur, but no blend figure is sourced.

Sources

kpler.com; en.wikipedia.org; premiumtimesng.com; spglobal.com

Chemistry & corrosion risks

chloride/overhead corrosion: variable imported and domestic crude slate, and saline lagoon or groundwater intrusion into wash water or cooling water (inferred, no incident sourced)
fouling: RFCC catalyst loss, fines and leaks are recurring, and fines in slurry oil and FCC sour water load the ETP (inferred from RFCC catalyst-loss events)
emulsions: frequent crude switching (WTI, Nigerian, Libyan, Guyanese) disturbs desalter operation (inferred)
scaling: RO-based reuse of cooling and boiler blowdown, and high-TDS reject (inferred)
biocide/consent conflict: MBR/SBR biology downstream of cooling-tower biocide and spent-caustic streams (inferred)
H2S/SSC: sour water, amine and SRU systems (generic, no sourced incident)
spent sulphuric acid handling: STRATCO alkylation with MECS acid regeneration (sourced unit; risk inferred)

Site conditions

Climate: Tropical savanna (Koppen Aw), Lagos. Mean highs 28-32 degC, warmest in March. Annual mean about 27.7 degC. Rainfall about 1,703 mm/yr, wettest in June (about 434 mm); main wet season May-October. Mean RH 77.7% (Jan) to 89.0% (Sep). Marine saline atmosphere.
Not public (ambient max): Only monthly mean highs are sourced (up to about 32 degC). Record or design maximum dry bulb not retrieved.
Seismic: No site-specific seismic zoning sourced. Southwest Nigeria is generally regarded as low seismicity (not sourced).
Ground: Reclaimed swamp and forest on a former river delta. About 54.5 million m3 of marine sand was dredged from the Atlantic by Jan De Nul (another report says 65 million m3 raised the ground 1.5 m) over about 2,400 ha. A 20 km, 4 m high perimeter bund was built against seawater intrusion into the lagoon. Geotechnical work comprised SPT, CPT and ERT. For construction, Mammoet's Enviro-Mat soil stabilisation (soil, cement, minerals, salt, zeolites) gave 50 t/m2 bearing over about 500,000 m2, instead of piling for the laydown and crane pads. Permanent foundation piling data are not public.
Flood or coastal risk: Low-lying barrier coastal site between the Atlantic and Lekki Lagoon. Lagos faces significant sea-level-rise exposure, estimated at USD 65-397 billion in cumulative damages by 2050. The site grade was raised about 1.5 m for climate resilience.
Not public (hazardous area): Hazardous-area certification regime (IECEx vs ATEX vs NEC) not published. EIL/UOP design practice and the Indian/Chinese EPC mix suggest IEC, but this is unverified.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org; linkedin.com; hydrocarbonengineering.com; mammoet.com; olorisupergal.com

History

Year	Event	Detail	Source
2013	commissioning	Project announced (September 2013)	en.wikipedia.org
2014	commissioning	Engineers India Ltd appointed project management consultant (USD 139 M)	en.wikipedia.org
2016	commissioning	Site dredging, sand fill and infrastructure start on reclaimed swamp	en.wikipedia.org
2019	commissioning	RFCC regenerator (about 3,000 t) delivered in January; crude column installed	vanguardngr.com
2023	commissioning	Formally commissioned 22 May 2023; 435 MW captive power plant online. First crude (1 MMbbl Agbami) received via SPM on 7 Dec 2023.	en.wikipedia.org
2024	commissioning	Diesel and jet production from January 2024; WTI imports from March 2024; gasoline (RFCC) from September 2024	en.wikipedia.org
2024	incident	Minor fire at the effluent treatment plant, 26 Jun 2024	ogj.com
2024	ownership change	NNPC stake confirmed at 7.2% instead of 20% (July 2024)	channelstv.com
2025	incident	Leak reported at the RFCC (31 Jan 2025)	qcintel.com
2025	commissioning	Polypropylene production starts (March 2025)	spglobal.com
2025	outage	Four-week turnaround to fix RFCC 'design issues'; units returning by 13 May 2025	spglobal.com
2025	outage	15-day RFCC shutdown from about 10 Aug 2025 for regenerator repair after significant catalyst loss. The unit had been running at about 60% of 204 kb/d.	hydrocarbonprocessing.com
2025	incident	About 800 staff dismissed over alleged sabotage, prompting a PENGASSAN strike (September 2025)	en.wikipedia.org
2025	expansion	Expansion to 1.4 Mb/d announced (October 2025). Honeywell selected on 25 Nov 2025 for technology, catalysts, equipment and Oleflex PDH (750 kt/y propylene; PP to 2.4 Mt/y).	honeywell.com
2026	outage	RFCC restart slipped to about 10 Feb 2026. January runs were about 280-300 kb/d. A one-week CDU maintenance was scheduled for early February.	premiumtimesng.com
2026	outage	May 2026: RFCC rate cut about 34% (crude slate mismatch and flue-gas slide-valve fault). August 2026: catalyst leak forced full RFCC shutdown; restart targeted about 20 Sep, with IIR warning of late Oct/Nov. July runs were about 350-400 kb/d, also constrained by flue-gas steam generator maintenance.	discoveryalert.com; riotimesonline.com
2026	ownership change	IPO live 14 Sep 2026: 4.1 billion shares at NGN 525, about NGN 2.15 trillion (about USD 1.63 billion)	en.wikipedia.org

Performance

Not public (utilisation): No official utilisation figure. Kpler: about 600 kb/d runs in Apr-May 2026 (about 92% of 650 kb/d, inferred). Reports: 350-400 kb/d in Jul 2026 (about 54-62%, inferred). The RFCC was offline from August 2026.
Throughput recent: Jan 2026 about 280-300 kb/d; reported full capacity reached Feb 2026; Apr-May 2026 about 600 kb/d with crude receipts 630/609 kb/d; Jul 2026 350-400 kb/d; RFCC down from Aug 2026 (catalyst leak).
Notes: The RFCC is the governing bottleneck: repeated outages since Apr 2025 from design issues, catalyst loss, slide valve and catalyst leak. Product exports reached a record 341 kb/d in Apr 2026. Gasoline exports fell from 81 kb/d (Apr) to about 10 kb/d (Jun 2026). By Apr 2026 the site supplied about 20% of European jet imports. H1 2026 after-tax profit was USD 1.82 billion.
Sources: kpler.com; premiumtimesng.com; riotimesonline.com; en.wikipedia.org

Projects

Project	Status	Epc or licensor	Year	Source
Refinery expansion from 650 kb/d to 1.4 Mb/d, estimated USD 14.3 billion, in phases 2025-28 and 2028-30. Honeywell says 2028; other reports say 2029. Company says on track (Sep 2026).	announced / in development	Honeywell UOP (technology, catalysts, equipment)	2028	honeywell.com; offshore-technology.com; bloomberg.com
Oleflex propane dehydrogenation (750 kt/y propylene) and PP expansion to 2.4 Mt/y	technology selected (Nov 2025); petrochemical expansion award April 2026	Honeywell UOP	2028	honeywell.com
Eight gas turbine-generator packages for expansion power	ordered July 2026	BHEL	2026	ogj.com
RFCC repair after the August 2026 catalyst leak	in progress; restart late Sep to Nov 2026	Honeywell UOP (licensor)	2026	discoveryalert.com
IPO (NGN 2.15 trillion) to fund expansion	live from 14 Sep 2026		2026	ceoworld.biz

Sources & confidence

Several 2026 RFCC details come from secondary aggregators (discoveryalert, riotimesonline) that cite IIR, Kpler and Reuters. The S&P and QCIntel articles were paywalled; their facts are taken from search-result summaries. The WABAG project page returned 404 on fetch; its content was taken from the search index. Wikipedia figures come via a summarising fetch and should be spot-checked before client use.

This profile is compiled from public documents only. Figures are quoted as published, and any inferred value is labelled as inferred. If you can correct or add to it, please contact us.