1 hr. ago
Ravindra Jadeja entered the record books on Sunday, becoming the first Indian cricketer to feature in 50 World Test Championship matches.
The 37-year-old all-rounder from Jamnagar, Gujarat, reached the landmark when India took on Sri Lanka in the second and final Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
Player
Matches
Runs
Best
#Indian #World #championship #jamnagar
The 37-year-old all-rounder from Jamnagar, Gujarat, reached the landmark when India took on Sri Lanka in the second and final Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
Player
Matches
Runs
Best
#Indian #World #championship #jamnagar
1 month ago
Dangote's 700,000 b/d Lekki refinery has been running at full capacity over the past two months, pushing product exports to Europe to record levels and overtaking traditional suppliers from the Gulf and the US. Its rise has already reshaped the West African fuel trade: imports of clean products from outside the region fell by almost 25% year-on-year in the second quarter. Yet Dangote is treating this only as a starting point. The group plans to add another crude distillation unit (CDU), lift total capacity to 1.45 million b/d and build a wider network of product-storage and distribution infrastructure across Africa. The ambition is vast, but so are the challenges.
The refinery's latest maintenance and upgrade programme lifted capacity from 650,000 b/d to 700,000 b/d by de-bottlenecking the existing crude distillation unit. That increase took roughly 2.5 years to deliver, with regular crude purchases beginning in March 2024. The next phase is larger. Dangote is targeting mechanical completion of a new 750,000 b/d CDU and additional secondary units by December 2028, potentially including another vacuum distillation unit as well as expanded polypropylene, base-oil and linear alkyl benzene capacity. If completed, the project would make Lekki the world's largest refinery at 1.45 million b/d, narrowly ahead of Reliance Industries' 1.4 million b/d Jamnagar complex in India. However, the construction of Dangote's first CDU took eight years, roughly in line with the pace of other recent refinery projects. India's newly commissioned Barmer refinery in Rajasthan, for example, also took around eight years to build, despite being far smaller at 180,000 b/d. That makes Dangote's target of completing a second CDU by 2028 look highly unrealistic.
Yet the timeline may be less important than the signal. While state-owned NNPC is still trying to rehabilitate its three refineries, with a combined capacity of 445,000 b/d, by attracting outside investors, Dangote's promise to build the world's largest refinery sends a clear message to both NNPC and potential investors: the competition is likely to become too difficult to withstand, regardless of when the second CDU is ultimately completed.
Related: IMF Downgrades Global Economic Growth Forecast To 3% Amid Iran War
The refinery has largely relied on Nigerian crude, but domestic supply has not been sufficient to cover its full needs. Crude receipts peaked near 650,000 b/d in May before easing to 575,000 b/d in June. Nigeria's very own Bonny Light has remained central, while WTI Midland from the US Gulf Coast provided an average of 120,000 b/d in 2025 and as much as 300,000 b/d in some months. The very light slate supported high jet and diesel yields but left too little residue to fully feed the refinery's residual fluid catalytic cracker, constraining gasoline output. Dangote has therefore widened its slate to include somewhat heavier Nigerian grades such as Escravos, Forcados and Bonga, alongside occasional cargoes
The refinery's latest maintenance and upgrade programme lifted capacity from 650,000 b/d to 700,000 b/d by de-bottlenecking the existing crude distillation unit. That increase took roughly 2.5 years to deliver, with regular crude purchases beginning in March 2024. The next phase is larger. Dangote is targeting mechanical completion of a new 750,000 b/d CDU and additional secondary units by December 2028, potentially including another vacuum distillation unit as well as expanded polypropylene, base-oil and linear alkyl benzene capacity. If completed, the project would make Lekki the world's largest refinery at 1.45 million b/d, narrowly ahead of Reliance Industries' 1.4 million b/d Jamnagar complex in India. However, the construction of Dangote's first CDU took eight years, roughly in line with the pace of other recent refinery projects. India's newly commissioned Barmer refinery in Rajasthan, for example, also took around eight years to build, despite being far smaller at 180,000 b/d. That makes Dangote's target of completing a second CDU by 2028 look highly unrealistic.
Yet the timeline may be less important than the signal. While state-owned NNPC is still trying to rehabilitate its three refineries, with a combined capacity of 445,000 b/d, by attracting outside investors, Dangote's promise to build the world's largest refinery sends a clear message to both NNPC and potential investors: the competition is likely to become too difficult to withstand, regardless of when the second CDU is ultimately completed.
Related: IMF Downgrades Global Economic Growth Forecast To 3% Amid Iran War
The refinery has largely relied on Nigerian crude, but domestic supply has not been sufficient to cover its full needs. Crude receipts peaked near 650,000 b/d in May before easing to 575,000 b/d in June. Nigeria's very own Bonny Light has remained central, while WTI Midland from the US Gulf Coast provided an average of 120,000 b/d in 2025 and as much as 300,000 b/d in some months. The very light slate supported high jet and diesel yields but left too little residue to fully feed the refinery's residual fluid catalytic cracker, constraining gasoline output. Dangote has therefore widened its slate to include somewhat heavier Nigerian grades such as Escravos, Forcados and Bonga, alongside occasional cargoes
