Nigeria’s 13% contribution to drive global new-build refinery CDU capacity growth by 2023, says GlobalData

By Samson Echenim

Nigeria is expected to drive new-build crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity growth in the global refinery industry from planned and announced (new-build) projects during the outlook period 2019 to 2023, contributing around 13 percent of global CDU capacity growth by 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s report, ‘H2 2019 Global Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook for Refineries – Nigeria Leads Global Refinery CDU Capacity Additions’, reveals that Nigeria is expected to have a new-build refinery CDU capacity of 1,935 thousand barrels per day (mbd) by 2023. Planned projects with identifiable development plans account for 58 percent of the new-build capacity (1,118mbd), while the remaining 817mbd is expected to come from early-stage announced projects.

Dipayan Chakraborty, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, said: “Nigeria is expected to add 32 new-build refineries during 2019 to 2023. Among these, Lagos is the largest new-build refinery, which is expected to start operations in 2020 with a capacity of 650mbd.”

Following Nigeria, GlobalData identifies China as the second highest country in terms of global refinery CDU capacity growth, adding a new-build CDU capacity of 1,621mbd by 2023. The Jieyang refinery in Guangdong is the largest upcoming refinery in China with new-build CDU capacity of 400mbd by 2023.

“Iraq stands third with new-build CDU capacity growth of 1,200mbd by 2023. The Basra II refinery is the largest upcoming refinery in Iraq with new-build CDU capacity of 300mbd by 2023,” Chakraborty concluded.