Dangote Breaks Ground for $660M Djibouti-Ethiopia Petroleum Pipeline Project

On 24 September 2026, Aliko Dangote, Chair and CEO of the Dangote Group, officially broke ground for the Djibouti-Ethiopia Petroleum Pipeline Project at the site of the Damerjob Industrial Park. Djibouti’s President Ismail Guelleh and Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ali also attended the ceremony and delivered remarks on the occasion.

The pipeline is 120 kilometers in length and connects the coastal Damerjog Industrial Park in Djibouti to the inland distribution hub at Dewele in Ethiopia. It is designed to transport multiple petroleum products. The estimated cost is USD 660 million and is a public-private partnership between Dangote Group and the Ethiopian Investment Holding (EIH). The African Export-Import Bank (Afeximbank) is financially backing the project.

The Project is broken down into two phases. The first phase will take about 18 months, and the pipeline will be ready to carry refined oil. Then, in phase 2, separate pipelines will transport crude and gas. Storage facilities over one million cubic meters (or 400 million liters) will be built at both ends. Previously, it took nearly five days to transport the petroleum by truck, but the pipeline will cut down the transit time to under a day.

The pipeline is part of a larger regional industrialization drive and connects to the petrochemical complex in the city of Gode, in southeastern Ethiopia. A fertilizer plant at Gode is also being built with a capacity of 3 million tonnes of urea annually, transforming Ethiopia from an importer to an exporter. As a matter of fact, Dangote had already signed a 25-year offtake agreement with Golden Concord to secure the gas from the nearby Galub and Hilala Fields.