In furtherance of the Federal Government’s commitment to improve domestic refining capacity and ongoing efforts in the support of the establishment of third party financed modular refineries, a team from the office of the Vice President and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources led by Rabiu Suleiman, senior technical adviser to minister of state for petroleum on refineries and gownstream infrastructure, visited the OPAC Refinery site located at Umuseti, Kwale, Delta State on Tuesday.
The site visit, which covered all relevant activities, facilities and equipment on the refinery project site, as well as performance monitoring and evaluation of the refinery project, was conducted to among others obtain first-hand information, review the level of progress of work, evaluate key technical aspects of the project, encourage the proponent’s commitment to the project completion and delivery time as well as identify areas of challenges, if any, for appropriate government’s intervention.
Speaking, the senior special assistant to the Vice President in charge of Niger Delta Affairs, Edobor Iyamu, said the Federal Government had created an enabling environment for ease of doing business, a situation where there are no deferrals in endorsements.
He gave assurances to the promoters that government support would continue till the project completion, and everything within government capacity would be done to ensure that the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its agencies support OPAC Refinery and other investors to ensure the sustainability of jobs creation.
Messer’s Susuluwa Sunday, the project engineer and the Russian chief engineer, Elberd Albogachiev, who conducted the team round the facility, assured the visitors that the project would not only be delivered on time but would be built to meet with international standards on the construction of modular refinery.
Other members of the team were Isa Baba, director – Oil Services, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Jide Awolowo, Technical Assistant to the Vice president on Petroleum Matters; Christopher Ilukhor, Technical Assistant to the Hon. Minister on Refineries and Downstream Infrastructure, Tahirah Ikharo, special assistant to the Vice President on Niger Delta New Vision and Paya Godwin. This is aside other top officials from DPR offices in Port Harcourt, Warri and Benin.
