Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Naturally occurring or crude bitumen is a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow. At room temperature, it has a consistency much like cold molasses. Refined bitumen is the residual (bottom) fraction obtained by fractional distillation of crude oil. It is the heaviest fraction and the one with the highest boiling point, boiling at 525 °C (977 °F). It can also be refined to produce commercial products such as gasoline, fuel oil and asphalt.
The Nigerian bitumen deposit put at 42.74 billion metric tons is the second largest in the world and was first discovered in 1900. It covers 120 kilometres costal belts of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Edo States.
Nigeria being one of the largest producers of crude oil however, the mid-stream sector of the oil and gas sector has made her heavily dependent on importing refined petroleum products and this includes bitumen.
It is estimated that the current world use of bitumen is approximately 102 million tonnes per year. Currently, Nigeria’s annual consumption of bitumen is a little over 500,000 metric tonnes and the market has been quite stable and increasing due to the epileptic performance of the kaduna refinery which is the only refinery in the country that produces bitumen at the moment.
There are different grades of bitumen with regards to specifications and this does not only apply to nigeria alone
but also many parts of the world. The gap created by the mid stream sector has made the importation process of bitumen a
lucrative gold mine while allowing the few players in the industry smiling.
It is also very interesting to note that imported bitumen is cheaper than the local one produced at the refinery thus making the import angle very lucrative while efforts are still made to meet the local demand of the product.
Approximately 85% of all the bitumen produced is used as the binder in asphalt for roads. It is also used in other paved
areas such as airport runways, car parks and footways.
The Bitumen 60/70 is usually blended with solvents like DPK to produce other grades of the product called Cutbacks. An example of the cutback are MCO, MC1, S125 and Colas A.
The above grades are usually applied during the various stages of road & building construction. Bitumen 60/70 is also mixed with granite to produce ASPHALT which is the major product used for road construction.
Economic returns from bitumen importation include capital gains and contribution to road maintenance. Presently, Nigeria, which has 59,892 km of paved roads with an additional 1,194 km of dual carriageway, the longest in Africa, spends an estimated N 300,000,000,000 {three hundred billion naira} annually on importation of asphalt, a bitumen derivative.
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