• Nigeria plans to reconnect the ALSCON aluminium smelter to the national grid and complete its 330 KVa substation soon.
• The $1.2 billion rehabilitation deal with China’s CNCEC aims to restore power and generate up to 660 MW.
• Ownership of ALSCON remains under legal dispute between Rusal and the U.S.-Nigerian consortium BFI despite a 2022 Supreme Court ruling.

Nigeria plans to accelerate the restart of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), which has been idle since 2013 due to a gas supply shortage, the Energy Ministry said.

Energy Minister Adebayo Adelabu said the government intends to connect the plant, located in Akwa Ibom State, to the national grid while expediting the completion of a 330 KVa substation initially designed to power it. The renovation of the substation and distribution lines is already 90% complete, he said.

Adelabu added that the project, executed in partnership with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and other contractors, will be supported by “commercially viable agreements” with gas suppliers. “Gas availability remains the main challenge that forced ALSCON to halt operations in March 2013,” he said.

Nigeria sold a majority stake in ALSCON to Russia’s Rusal in 2007 for $205 million under its public-enterprise privatization program. Rusal claims an 85% ownership. However, the sale was legally challenged by the U.S.-Nigerian consortium Bancorp Financial Investment (BFI), which had made a higher $410 million bid in 2004 that collapsed over payment issues.

In July 2022, Nigeria’s Supreme Court ordered the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to annul the sale to Rusal and accept BFI’s bid instead. Despite the ruling, the legal battle over the smelter’s ownership continues.

Rusal has taken the dispute to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). Meanwhile, BFI signed a $1.2 billion contract in November 2024 with China National Chemical Engineering Company (CNCEC) to overhaul the power plant that supplies the smelter.

According to Adelabu, the refurbishment will add about 540 MW to Nigeria’s national grid, with potential expansion up to 660 MW.

The minister said restarting the facility could generate up to 15,000 direct and indirect jobs for young Nigerians. He added that ALSCON’s full operation would save the country millions of dollars by supplying local industries with domestically produced aluminium.

This article was initially published in French by Walid Kéfi

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum