Barring any last minute hitch, the first modular refinery in Nigeria will become operational by April 2020.
It is expected to produce 5,000 per day of refined products.
The ground-breaking ceremony of the refinery was performed on Thursday at the Ibigwe Flow station of Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited.
The project is being partnered by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) with 30 per cent equity and financed by the African Finance Corporation with an 18 month completion period.
Speaking on the occasion, Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, expressed the commitment of the board in making sure that the project was completed on schedule.
He described the project as a very important milestone sequel to the signing of the Shareholders Agreement and the Share Subscription Agreement with Waltersmith in June 2018.
He expressed happiness that in less than few months, the project has progressed from the designs, regulatory approvals, legal framework, commercial evaluations, financial construct, and other important paper works to actual physical development on site.
He said that more of this partnership is needed as part of the board’s initiatives to increase the Nigerian Content in the oil and gas sector to 70 per cent within the next 10years, adding that beyond NCDMB’s interventions in the local supply chain for in-country capacity utilization, the board has broadened its focus to include in-country resource utilization.
Minister of State, Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu, reiterated the commitment of the present administration to ensuring that the importation of petroleum products is eliminated by repairing the nation’s four refineries before the end of 2019.
He said the it would be sad if by the end of 2019, Nigeria is still importing fuel from abroad, stressing that the policy of this administration is go back to refining about 20 per cent of our crude which will move to 50 per cent in the next five years’.
In his welcome address, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Waltersmith Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, Abdulrazaq Isa, said that the ground breaking event was a milestone for indigenous participation in the country’s downstream sector.
He said that the company, established as an indigenous in 1996, was awarded the Ibigwe field located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 16 (now Oil Operating License 2004) in 2003 after participating in the marginal fields licensing rounds specifically designed for indigenous companies.
According to him, the company has successfully operated the field through a farm-out agreement executed in 2004 with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and its joint venture partners, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and had successfully operated the field ramping up production from an initial capacity of 500 bopd to 7,000 bopd.
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