Integrated Oil and Gas, the promoter of $450 million Tomaro Industrial Park and Free Trade Zone (FTZ), has commenced construction works at the project site of the FTZ located at the Tomaro Island in Lagos.
So far, serious construction is ongoing at the Eastern side of the industrial park, where investment in the building of 30 oil tank bases, which is going to be strategic storage and product supply tank farm, will be located at the Island.
BusinessDay understands that out of the proposed 30 tank bases to be built on the Tomaro Island, two have been completed; construction works ongoing on another four new tank bases while the surveyor has also started work on the number seventh and eight tanks. “The tank farm project consists of 30 tank bases with storage capacity of 500 million liters of fuel. Given the capacity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), would be at liberty to draw fuel for 15 days from the facility when there is ups and down in fuel supply in Nigeria,” Emmanuel Ihenacho, chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas, said on Tuesday in Lagos, when a team of officers from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) visited the facility on inspection tour.
According to him, Tomaro tank farm would be designed to become the center for tank farm operation in Nigeria and the whole of West African region as products from the farm can be moved to other facilities in Apapa, Tin-Can, Port Harcourt, Warri and even some countries in West African region like Ghana, Lome and others.
“Most tank farms rely on the arrangement where ships supply products to the tank farm and trucks come to pick products from the farms. But, because we are located on the Island and given the function the farm is designed to do, we will be supplied by ships and discharge also by ships. This means that smaller vessels and barges would be used to take the products from Tomaro tank farms to the farms located at the ports,” Ihenacho said.
Ihenacho further said that the company also intends to develop the 20,000 barrels per day modular refinery, which will also make use of the tanks as storage facility. “The tanks we are building are also going to service the refineries in terms of storing the refined petroleum products.
“Tomaro project is actually making progress and we have a number of major investments covering both the oil and maritime sectors. Tomaro Island is a project on its own because is an industrial zone. This will create job opportunities for people and technology transfer for Nigerian engineers,” he added.
Reacting to this, Tunji Giwa, chief superintendent of Customs, who commended the level of work at the Tomaro Island, said that as a revenue generating agency that Customs visit was basically to see the level of development in the Free Trade Zone and to know the area to partner with the promoters towards successful completion of the project.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
