Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery will construct fuel storage tanks in Namibia with a total capacity of at least 1.6 million barrels to supply petrol and diesel to Southern African countries.

The tanks will be located in the port city of Walvis Bay and will serve Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The facility may also supply the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The initiative is part of Dangote’s wider strategy to expand market access for fuel refined at its 650,000-barrel-per-day plant in Nigeria. Commissioned last year at a cost of $20 billion, the refinery has started supplying Nigeria’s domestic market and is gradually targeting new export destinations. Last month, a Dangote petroleum cargo reportedly left Nigeria for Asia, marking the refinery’s first known shipment outside West Africa. At full capacity, the refinery is expected to meet domestic demand and export surplus volumes.