By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
Billionaire Aliko Dangote has begun a $2.5 billion fuel storage and regional pipeline project in Namibia’s Walvis Bay on Wednesday that could reshape the fuel supply architecture in Southern Africa, Reuters News Agency reported.
The project is one of a slew of energy ventures championed by Dangote, Africa’s richest man, as he expands his sprawling business empire on a continent heavily reliant on imported fuels and hard-hit by the Iran war.
Dangote already operates Africa’s biggest refinery in Nigeria, a 700,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant, which he is expanding, with plans to build another 700,000 bpd refinery in Kenya on the opposite side of the continent.
At a launch ceremony attended by Namibian President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Dangote said that the pipeline project, once complete, would strengthen the energy independence of six African countries and help establish Walvis Bay as a fuel logistics hub.
“For Namibia, it is expected to moderate logistical vulnerabilities, high shipping costs and severe energy insecurity while promoting infrastructure warehousing,” he said.
The tank farm will have storage capacity of approximately 600 million litres, or some four million barrels, with 360 million litres of diesel and the remainder petrol.
Dangote told reporters the project would be completed within 18 to 20 months.
It will have eight times the capacity of Namibia’s 75 million-litre National Oil Storage Facility, operated by Namibia’s national oil company, Namcor.
The tank terminal has scope for a 1,700 km pipeline connecting the hinterland countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and potentially the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dangote said.
Gerrit van Rooyen, a senior economist at Oxford Economics Africa, said the project was part of a broader strategy by Dangote to develop African fuel distribution networks for his refined fuel exports.
