Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited, says the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will pursue a listing on a United States stock exchange after expanding its processing capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day.
Gatekeepers News reports that Dangote disclosed this during an interview with CNN on Thursday, saying the expansion is expected to be completed within the next two and a half years.
“After we have gone to 1.4 million bpd in the next two and a half years, we will now list in the US and I believe a lot of other people too will join, because by that time, we’re going to be the biggest refinery ever in the history of the world, with a massive petrochemical complex,” he said.
The businessman said the planned expansion would position the facility as the world’s largest refinery, alongside a major petrochemical complex. He also expressed confidence that investors would show strong interest in the company when it seeks a US listing.
“I think it is going to be something that people would definitely rush [to] buying,” Dangote said.
The refinery currently has a processing capacity of about 700,000 barrels per day, after increasing output from its original 650,000 bpd nameplate capacity. The company has said it plans to double the capacity to 1.4 million bpd.
The planned US listing would come after the refinery’s ongoing initial public offering (IPO) in Nigeria. Dangote recently described the IPO as the biggest in Africa and said he expected it to be heavily oversubscribed.
The Nigerian IPO is expected to raise about $1.6 billion to support the company’s expansion plans. Reuters reported that the refinery is seeking to spend about $14.3 billion on doubling its capacity by 2029.
Dangote’s latest plan represents a further step in the company’s efforts to expand beyond Nigeria and establish itself as a major player in the global refining and petrochemical industry.
