Precious Nwonu, Enugu
The planned Dangote refinery in Lamu, Kenya, will feature a power-generation plant capable of producing about 1,000 megawatts of electricity, twice the capacity of the power plant supporting the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Nigeria.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, disclosed this during Kenyan President William Ruto’s visit to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, ahead of the planned groundbreaking of the Lamu project.
Dangote said about 500MW of the electricity generated by the Kenyan facility could be made available to the Kenyan government, providing an additional source of power for the country.
He also revealed that the Lamu refinery would be equipped with heavier processing machinery than some of the equipment installed at the Lagos refinery and would include a coker, a processing unit not currently installed at the Nigerian plant.
Dangote said the scale of the Kenyan project would exceed what Ruto saw during his tour of the Lagos facility.
“Here I will give you a sense of an idea of what we’re going to have in Kenya, just that Kenya will be a little bit bigger than what you are going to see, Your Excellency, today,” he said.
The Lamu refinery is planned to have a crude-processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, making it one of the largest planned refining projects in Africa. The project is also expected to form part of a wider industrial complex involving petrochemical and other related activities.
### Ruto Confirms September 30 Groundbreaking
Ruto confirmed that the groundbreaking ceremony for the refinery would take place on September 30, 2026, saying his administration had already secured the land required for the project.
The Kenyan President said the government was also working to put other necessary project enablers in place and remove administrative bottlenecks that could delay construction and subsequent operations.
The planned refinery is being developed on land within the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor. Kenya has described the project as an important part of efforts to expand its energy and industrial capacity.
Preparations for the groundbreaking have intensified, with heavy construction machinery already arriving at Lamu Port ahead of the ceremony.
The refinery is expected to process crude from Kenya and other sources in the region and supply refined petroleum products to markets in East and Central Africa.
Ruto said the project would also create opportunities in engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, business and other sectors, while supporting the development of related industries around the refinery.
The Lamu project is expected to take several years to complete and, if delivered at its planned capacity, would significantly expand refining capacity in East Africa.