Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals will be the first industrial facility in the world to use Honeywell Technologies’ newly launched artificial intelligence platform, which is projected to deliver more than $60 million in annual gross operational benefits at full refining capacity.
The platform, called Forge Plant Cognition, will make its global debut at the Lekki-based refinery. It combines Honeywell’s process engineering expertise with NVIDIA’s AI capabilities and Dell Technologies’ computing infrastructure, with the aim of improving refining efficiency, maximising output and strengthening operational reliability.
Honeywell said preliminary assessments show the technology could generate benefits of more than 29 cents per barrel at the refinery. At full throughput, that would amount to over $60 million a year in gross benefits. The company stressed that the figure is specific to the Dangote facility, rests on preliminary data and will depend on actual operating conditions.
The move marks another step in the refinery’s evolution from construction and commissioning towards the use of advanced digital systems to raise productivity, strengthen competitiveness and support its expansion plans.
Dangote Refinery’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, David Bird, said the decision reflected the company’s commitment to operational excellence, innovation and the development of Nigerian engineering talent.
“We chose Honeywell Technologies’ Forge Plant Cognition because the platform can deliver unrivaled industrial expertise combined with differentiated AI capabilities to help us optimize performance, unlock greater value from our operations and evolve how we operate our assets,” Bird said. “This investment reinforces our commitment to operational excellence, advancing technology and developing Nigerian talent to operate at world-class standards.”
Unlike conventional monitoring systems that mainly analyse operating data and generate recommendations, Forge Plant Cognition links real-time plant information with engineering knowledge, advanced calculations and physics-based models. This lets it identify operational constraints and support faster, better-informed decisions. Engineers and operators will be able to spot potential equipment and process problems before they escalate, find production bottlenecks and act on recommended fixes to improve throughput, product yields and overall plant performance.
Honeywell said the platform will concentrate on three areas: finding ways to improve refining margins, protecting production by cutting unplanned downtime, and making specialised engineering expertise more readily available to plant staff.
Together, these are expected to help operators get more value from existing equipment while improving the reliability and efficiency of interconnected refining processes.
The platform will also transfer specialised process knowledge into AI-powered tools that local engineers and operators can use, helping them solve complex problems faster and build advanced industrial skills.
This supports the refinery’s goal of a workforce that is more than 70 per cent Nigerian, while gradually reducing reliance on external technical expertise.
President of Honeywell Technologies UOP, Rajesh Gattupalli, described the collaboration as proof of how AI can transform large-scale industrial operations.
“Industrial plants are among the most complex operating environments in the world, with enormous potential to realize greater performance and value using digital technologies and connected solutions,” Gattupalli said. “By collaborating with Dangote to launch Forge Plant Cognition, we are demonstrating how AI can help transform industrial operations, driving new levels of productivity, reliability and profitability at significant scale.”
