The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE has picked on Honeywell Technologies to provide process technologies, licensing, engineering services, proprietary catalysts, equipment and digital solutions for its planned 700,000 barrels per day refinery in Lamu Port in Kenya. Once complete, the Lamu refinery is expected to become the world’s largest single-train refinery.

The Lamu project builds on nearly a decade of collaboration between the two companies and leverages on proven engineering designs that Honeywell technologies for Dangote’s refinery in Lekki, Nigeria. Dangote’s ability to draw upon these established designs will help reduce the development for the Lamu facility by nearly two years-nearly 30% sooner than typical newly constructed facilities.

The Lamu refinery will leverage Honeywell technologies’ refining and petrochemical processing solutions to provide gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and polypropylene. The refinery will have the flexibility to process a wide variety of crude oils, from light to heavy grades, enabling the use of feedstocks sourced from multiple regions and reducing reliance on any single supply source.

Dangote plan f0r Africa’s oil

“Dangote is committed to expanding Africa’s refining capacity and strengthening long-term energy security for the continent while also serving growing export markets, said Aliko Dangote, President Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE. “ Our proven collaboration with Honeywell technologies will enable us to bring the Lamu facility online faster and provide the flexibility to process a broad range of crude oils. Together, these capabilities will help us meet growing global demand for fuels and petrochemical products.”

The Honeywell technologies project scope for the Lamu refinery is expected to be approximately US$ 300 Million.

“Large-scale refinery projects require a combination of proven technologies, engineering expertise and digital capabilities,” said Rajesh Gattupali, President of Honeywell technologies UOP. “Through our long standing relationship with Dangote, we have developed proven large-train engineering designs that can be applied to the Kenya refinery to help significantly reduce time-to-market. We will provide modifications that enable the Lamu refinery to process a wide range of crude feedstocks, help improve operational flexibility and reduce reliance on any single crude source or supply region.

The Lamu project underscores how proven refining technologies and digital solutions can help accelerate project execution while supporting energy security, supply chain resilience and economic growth.

The Lamu refinery in Kenya marks another milestone in the longs-standing relationship between Dangote and Honeywell Technologies.

Honeywell has an established presence in Africa, supporting the continent’s growing energy and industrial needs through advanced technology, deep domain expertise and long-term customer collaborations. From early project development and financing support to workforce training and lifecycle services, Honeywell technologies works alongside customers to strengthen local capabilities and advance projects that contribute to energy security and economic growth.

Honeywell Technology follows on Engineers India Limited(EIL), an Indian firm that has secured a lucrative contract worth KSh58 billion, a massive consultancy and engineering contract for the upcoming Dangote Group Mega refinery in Lamu. Debate has been raging in the social media why Dangote has not chosen a firm from Africa for his oil projects. While Kenya still get work on these projects as consultants, they still face the bigger limitation that local firms do not have the scale of heavy machinery and capital needed to take on projects of this magnitude as the main contractor. This is despite local universities and technical institutions churning out thousands of engineers and project designers

The same goes for Africa, which has yet to grow such huge contracting firms capable of undertaking huge projects such as the refinery planned for Lamu Port.