Nigeria is set to drive refinery crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity growth in Africa with its planned and announced (new-build) refineries expected to contribute around 50% of the continent’s total growth between 2019 and 2023, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s report, ‘Refining Industry Outlook in Africa to 2023 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook with Details of All Operating and Planned Refineries’, reveals that Nigeria is expected to have new-build CDU capacity of 1.9 million barrels of oil per day (mmbd) by 2023.

Varun Ette, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In Nigeria, 32 planned and announced CDU refineries are expected to start operations during 2019 to 2023. Of these, Lagos I has the highest CDU capacity of 650 thousand barrels per day (mbd). The Lagos I refinery is expected to start operations in 2021.”

Following Nigeria, GlobalData identifies Angola as the second highest contributor to the CDU capacity growth in Africa with a new-build capacity of 598mbd by 2023. Of the total capacity, 198mbd is likely to come from planned CDUs and 400mbd from early-stage announced CDUs. The Tabi refinery has the highest capacity among all the CDUs in the country, which is expected to start operations by 2023, accounting for 67% of capacity additions in the country.

Ette concludes: “South Africa is the third highest contributor to the CDU capacity growth in Africa. The country is expected to witness entire CDU capacity additions from one refinery, Mthombo, which is expected to start operations in 2022 with a CDU capacity of 400mbd.