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World’s largest atmospheric tower built for Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has left the port in China en-route to Nigeria, according to the manufacturer, Sinopec, China’s leading energy and chemical company. Sinopec, on Monday, July 29, made this known on its verified Twitter handle, sharing photos of the tower. “On July 29, the world’s largest atmospheric tower built by Sinopec slowly left a wharf in Ningbo. Following the Maritime #SilkRoad, it will travel to #Nigeria and be installed at the world’s biggest single-train facility – Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery,” the tweet reads.
        The piece of equipment is designed to process crude oil for Dangote refinery. For the type of refinery Dangote Group is building, the atmospheric tower is the primary unit processing crude oil into fuels, Citac analyst Jeremy Parker told Reuters, adding that it will likely take at least a month to reach Lagos. The refinery which is planned to be producing 650,000 barrel per day (bpd) is set to be Africa’s largest, with potential to transform Nigeria from being an importer of fuel to a net exporter. The refinery is situated on a 6,180 acres (2,500 hectares) site at the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos. Recall that Aliko Dangote in 2018 disclosed that he planned to complete the $12-14 billion refinery project in 2019, with additional plans to start production in early 2020. Analysts and observers have, however, suggested that the ambitious project would take longer in order to begin pumping out fuels such as diesel and gasoline. “This is a major milestone, but there is still much work to be done, both in terms of sourcing the other units and in terms of interconnection at the site,” Parker was quoted to have said of the atmospheric tower shipment. According to Citac's projection, the refinery will start producing fuels in 2023.