• Signs $450m deal to oversee construction
• Firm built $20bn Lagos refinery
• Dangote to spend $50bn in 4 yrs to $100bn by 2030 on Africa business empire expansion
Aliko Dangote, billionaire owner of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals (DPRP) in Lagos, Nigeria, has hired Engineers India, the firm that built his $20 billion Lagos refinery, to provide project management and engineering services on his new Kenya crude processing plant that he is set to start constructing later this month.
Engineers India Ltd. (EIL), a company that is majority-owned by the government of India, signed a $450 million deal with Dangote to oversee the construction of the planned 700-000 barrels-per-day greenfield refinery and petrochemical plant to be located in Kenya’s coastal town of Lamu, the firm said in filing on the Mumbai stock exchange.
The $450 million contract covers the consultancy, engineering and project management work, and should not be confused with the overall cost of constructing the refinery, which has a wider project estimated at $17 billion.
Under the agreement, the Indian state-owned firm will serve as the project management consultant and engineering, procurement and construction management consultant for the refinery and petrochemical complex.
Its responsibilities will include overseeing project planning, engineering, procurement and construction management, as well as coordinating contractors and monitoring costs, timelines, quality and safety during the development of the facility.
The Kenya mega refinery construction is planned to complete in about four years, to come on stream by 2031.
EIL, operating under Indian government’s ministry of petroleum and natural gas served as the project management consultant and engineering, procurement and construction management consultant for Dangote’s 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery and petrochemical complex at Lekki Free Trade Zone (FZE) Lagos, which was commissioned in 2024. The Indian firm is also overseeing the refinery’s ongoing expansion, which will increase its current 700,000 bpd capacity to 1.4 million bpd by 2029. It has equally undertaken other major projects for Dangote Group, including work on a four-train fertiliser plant.
According to Bloomberg report, Dangote also plans to build a 4,000 kilometer network of pipelines that connect Lamu to Ethiopia as well as another pipeline link from Djibouti to Ethiopia, under grand plans to connect East Africa’s landlocked countries.
Earlier this month, Kenyan government confirmed that Dangote was to break the ground on September 30 for construction of the mega refinery in Lamu.
Energy industry analysts said the Indian firm was brought into the Kenyan refinery project partly because of its existing working relationship with the Dangote Group on major projects in Nigeria.
Industry watchers say the incoming Dangote’s Kenya refinery with a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, places it among the largest refinery projects planned in Africa. It would also boost East Africa’s fuel production, and particularly gives Kenya a potential major role in regional petroleum supply.
Engineers India Ltd (EIL) said in its Mumbai stock exchange filing that when completed, the Lamu refinery project will be critical in strengthening fuel production within East Africa, reducing reliance on imports, and supporting regional energy security.
Dangote’s statement in the exchange filing highlighted his Group’s existing relationship, saying, “Believing in EIL’s Engineering and Project Management excellence, the Dangote Group has once again joined hands with EIL… for this prestigious Kenya Project.”
The Kenya plant expands Dangote’s footprint into East Africa, extending his reach from the Atlantic to Indian Ocean, as well as the global energy market. It will also complement Africa’s richest man’s Lagos refinery, whose capacity is planned to double to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2029.
Dangote had said earlier this month that work will start on the Lamu, Kenya refinery by the end of September, and will cost $16 billion to complete.
Additionally, Kenyan government plans building infrastructure that would support the movement of crude oil from the country’s oil-producing region in Turkana to the coast, which is expected to process crude for both the Kenyan and wider East African markets.
The newly announced contract represents Engineers India Ltd’s formal entry into the Kenyan refinery project, outside its existing assignment it had already been carrying out in Kenya.
With a net worth of $35.5 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote currently has plans to spend as much as $50 billion over the next four years to expand his business empire on the African continent, after setting a target of $100 billion in revenues for the Dangote Group by 2030.
