Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), which is owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s and world’s richest black man, has completed the take-over of Twister B.V., a Netherlands-based gas processing company.
When Dangote suggested that Nigeria’s Liqufied Natural Gas (NLNG) should be up for sale, to boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, he was criticised by many and was accused of seeking to buy the gas processing company.
Twister B.V. is formerlly owned by Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1, before its acquisition by Dangote together with its partner First E&P.
According to Dangote Group, Twister gas plants are typically cheaper to build and operate compared to alternative technologies, and also deliver better performance levels.
The company is said to have clients in Nigeria, South America and Malaysia.
The acquisition complements Dangote’s portfolio of investments in the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments of the oil and gas sector.
With this acquisition, the company is expected to help design and build the gas plants, which would be critical in processing gas from oil fields for transportation via Dangote’s planned sub-sea pipeline (EWOGGS) for ultimate consumption by various industries and power plants.
According to Dangote: “This was an important acquisition for us. Twister’s cutting edge gas processing technology is fundamental to delivering our strategy to unlock about 3 bcfd of gas in order to meet Nigeria’s gas needs,” .
“We are delighted in the confidence DIL and First E&P have shown in Twister to be their core provider of gas separation solutions, said John Young, Twister’s CEO.
“After a very thorough, due diligence, our technology has been recognised as a key enabler to reduce gas project costs, which is crucial in this current environment. We are excited to be part of the Dangote family of companies.”
Dangote Industries Limited is reported to have the capacity of creating a minimum of 235,000 new jobs, both direct and indirect jobs, as it becomes operational in the first quarter of 2019.
Dangote revealed recently that the projects would cost a minimum of $17 billion.
According to Dangote, the $12 billion refinery would have a capacity of 650,000 barrels a day, adding that there would be market for the refined products because even in Africa, only three countries have effective functioning refinery with others importing from abroad.
He named the countries with refinery as Egypt, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire, saying: “Our refinery will be ready in the first quarter of 2019. Mechanical completion will be end of 2018 but we will start producing in 2019.”
When the projects fully take off in 2019, it would help the country save $5 billion spent on the importation of oil into the country, Dangote said
The refinery, petrochemicals and fertilizer in one spot, according to him, is the single largest stream in the world.
“This site is the biggest site in the world; the refinery is the biggest single refinery in the world, the petrochemicals are 13 times bigger than Eleme Petrochemicals while the fertilizer plant will be 10 times bigger than former National Fertilizer Company.”
He explained that the project with the $2 billion fertilizer unit was the funded through loans, export credit agencies and his company’s equity.
