A piece of very vital equipment that will process crude oil for Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Company has just arrived Lekki, the group’s refinery site in Lagos, Punch says.

The Details: The equipment is a crude distillation column capable of delivering 650,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD). The crude oil processor is also famed as the largest oil processing equipment in the world, according to a statement from the firm.

“The significant equipment has a weight of 2,250 metric tonnes; length, 112.5 metres; width, 14.036 metres; and height, 13.752 metres. The above-mentioned weight does not include the weight of the internal trays which is about 536 MT,” the company said.

About the equipment: Captain Rajen Sachar, who is the Head, Maritime and Ports Infrastructure for the company, gave more details of the refinery’s capacity. He noted that the refinery would produce Euro-V quality petrol and diesel, as well as jet fuel and polypropylene when completed.

Describing the delivery of the crude oil processor, he hinted that the machine was manufactured by Sinopec in China. He also added that the machine is the primary equipment used for refining crude oil into petroleum products.

[READ MORE: Dangote Refinery to export products to Europe, South America, others]

Sachar, who was elated about the delivery of the equipment, said the refinery would serve neighbouring African countries in the continent well, by providing cost-effective, high-grade petroleum products to them.

“This refinery with a capacity of 650,000 bpsd is higher than the total demand of Nigeria, thus catapulting Nigeria from a net importer of petroleum products to a net exporter of petroleum products,” he said.

What you should know: On July 29, the world’s largest atmospheric tower built by Sinopec, China’s leading energy and chemical company slowly left a wharf in Ningbo, China for the shores of Lagos in Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria.

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. pic.twitter.com/8zBJesejn1

— Sinopec (@SinopecNews) July 29, 2019

According to experts, the primary purpose of the atmospheric distillation tower is to separate crude oil into its components (or distillation cuts, distillation fractions) for further processing by other processing units.

It took 14 months for the crude oil processor to be constructed by Sinopec in China and eight weeks to bring it to Nigeria.