Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, announced Sunday that Africa's largest refinery, located in Nigeria, will double its capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day in three years, making it "the largest refinery in the world."

"We are more than doubling the barrels... to 1.4 million from 650,000," Mr. Dangote, the owner of the refinery, said at a press conference in Lagos.

"This will make it the largest refinery" in the world, surpassing India's Jamnagar refinery, the Nigerian businessman estimated.

Before the opening of the private Dangote refinery last year, Nigeria had to import almost all of its fuel, despite its status as Africa's largest oil producer.

The country pumps an average of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, according to OPEC, but is still far from its target of two million barrels per day.

After years of neglect and mismanagement of state-owned refineries, Mr. Dangote has shaken up the established players in this corruption-ridden petrostate and brought down gasoline prices for consumers.

"This expansion reflects our confidence in Nigeria's future, our belief in Africa's potential and our commitment to building our continent's energy independence," added Mr. Dangote.

He said there was "a lot of demand" from West and East Africa.

The refinery, which also exports jet fuel, mainly to the United States, Europe and Brazil, and has sparked monopoly fears by becoming a powerful player itself, plans to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange next year.

"This is a step towards greater market ownership and transparency," said Aliko Dangote.

- Recent strike -

A second private refinery, BUA, is under construction by another Nigerian billionaire, Abdul Samad Rabiu.

In September, Mr. Dangote took the initiative to use his own natural gas trucks to distribute fuel in Nigeria, which triggered a strike by a union of tanker drivers, accusing him of requiring drivers not to be union members when hiring.

A two-day strike, which had raised the threat of fuel shortages in Africa's most populous country, ended on October 1 after government mediation.

The Petroleum and Gas Senior Executives Association of Nigeria (Pengassan) had accused the refinery of dismissing 800 local workers because they were unionized, and replacing them with 2,000 Indian workers.

The refinery described the accusations as a "lie," stating that it had only dismissed a small number of employees for "acts of sabotage," without giving an exact figure.

Pengassan "has agreed to begin the process of ending the strike (...) while Dangote begins the process of transferring the dismissed employees to other companies in the Dangote group, without loss of pay," the Nigerian Ministry of Labor announced on October 1.

Mr. Dangote on Sunday thanked the federal government for its role "in mediating our recent disturbances at the (refinery), linked to union activities and some sabotage attempts."