In Africa, most of our problems is that we're waiting for foreign investors to come and develop our own land. It's not possible. You can only, you know, I mean, that can only happen by we Africans. We must lead, others will join us. Okay? If we don't commit our own funds to develop our continent, nobody will do that for us. I'm a king.
No, I just I want to welcome Aliko Dangote. For those of you who don't know him, he is Africa's and probably the global south's most consequential business leader on so many levels. And he's been engaged especially in the last couple of years in some incredibly courageous investment work in the energy industry. He's just built the largest petrochemical refinery in Africa. And of course as we face this energy crisis right now is in the middle of so much. So welcome Aliko. Thank you so much for coming. I've been asking you for three years to come and you finally came.
All right. Tell us the story of how you had the idea because he already had the largest company in Africa and then decided to what many people at the time thought was crazy was to build Africa's biggest refinery which by the way I think can fuel all the petrochemicals for the entire continent if it's required but tell us the story of that.
Well, you know, thank you Justin. You know, we decided to build, you know, I mean, long story, we bought the old refinery of the government. Then another government came in and reversed it. Then we went to Saudi, want to go and build a 300,000 barrels per day refinery. And so we started work. I remember I went to see Dr. F who was the minister of energy then of Saudi Arabia. He invited me over, you know, was during fasting to break the fasting with him. So he said, 'Well, Aliko, I heard that you want to build a refinery.' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'But you know, refineries are only built by multinationals and sovereign governments.' I say, 'Well, yes.' So, you know, we started the conversation. I said, 'But holding your excellency, you know, I'm not actually looking for advice because I'm already in. I've started.' So he said, 'Really?' I say, 'Yes.' So okay. Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay. I wish you good luck. How big? I said 650,000. He said, 'But how? There's no 650,000.' I said, 'No, 650,000 barrels a day.' The largest line that was actually ever built was by Saudi Aramco, which is 460,000 barrel. One single train. You know, they come in trains. So single line we said now we are going to do 650 and we went to couple of these EPC contractors. EPC means engineering, procurement and construction contractors and you know almost all of them really turn us down. There are no Nigeria risky you know. So okay we now decided to create our own company, construction company and we did everything A to Z. How long did it take? It took us more than 8 years. It took us about 8 and a half years. But 8 and a half years of various problems. We had about the real construction started 2018 you know because we had challenges with various government about land. We had to shift the land to another land, another state. And then after that you know we now face the issue of the land itself you know so we had to debush because it was like a mangrove you know trees all over and we're able to it took us 8 and a half months to remove that then the climate change we have to now pump 65 million tons of sand to take it off by a meter and a half.
So let me just move right into the news of the day which is obviously with the Straits of Hormuz closed we are undergoing a massive global sort of energy shock. You're right in the middle of it. You're a player in the middle of it. You have a different perspective because you're a Nigerian based in Africa. Obviously you're closer to the global south than the African countries. How do you see the situation right now and how do you see it unfolding?
Well, the situation now is a very tough one. You're right, we are in the middle of it. The luck is that we are now at full capacity of the petrochemical which is polypropylene. The refinery we're major suppliers of aviation fuel to UK and also to North America. We do export gasoline to the US also.
But what are the impacts already on I mean because a lot of the impacts of the closing of the straits are sort of slightly delayed. Obviously, you know, the price of oil has gone up, but it keeps that comes down based on a Trump tweet, then it goes back up. What is actually going on?
Well, that's why, you know, really what is actually happening on the ground? It is really very very tough period, you know, because you can really lose a lot of money. Even though the good thing about our own business is that now because of all this crisis the cost of crude and the cost of petroleum products has actually been separated this time around because the cracks which means the profitability in terms of processing the crude into products, you know, in aviation fuel if you look at it today if we continue like this majority of African airlines won't be able to survive, you know, especially the Nigerian business. Just as I was waiting to come in here, I realized that look, they have even issued a statement yesterday that they are not going to operate from the 20th, you know, because they won't be able to survive.
This is all African airlines or just some?
No, this is the one of Lagos, Nigeria. Nigerian. But other ones I'm sure they will.
And what are the other impacts in Africa right now? What about fertilizer? What about the?
Well, the impact is very huge especially when you look at now fertilizer. This is something that 2 months ago we are selling fertilizer at about average of $400. Today it's $850.
Jesus. Wow. And what's the impact on Africans?
