The 11,000-barrel-per-day Ogbele modular refinery being promoted by Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited is set to commence production about two to three weeks from now.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has undertaken a pre-commissioning inspection of the facility, which is a precursor to the final approval before the refinery goes into full-time production.
“The refinery is almost ready to go. Seven years ago we built a 1,000-capacity refinery and we started upgrading the refinery roughly two and a half years ago so the total capacity of the refinery is going from 1,000bpd to 11,000bpd,” Lai Fatona, immediate past managing director of NDPR, said in an interview with BusinessDay.
When commissioned, the refinery will produce diesel, marine diesel, jet fuel, heavy fuel oil (HFO) and premium motor spirit (PMS), according to sources close to the plant.
“Our expectations are that it will be up and running anytime in August if we got the permission of DPR to introduce crude into the facility after their inspections,” Fatona said.
This development is sure to bring relief to Nigeria, which currently depends wholly on imports to meet the demand for petroleum products. Importation of these products now constitutes a drain on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves.
Also, many oil marketing companies that are almost out of business now and on the verge of going moribund because of the high cost of foreign exchange to import these products are expected to take advantage of this opportunity and swing back to action.
According to sources familiar with the developments at the plant, the DPR technical team which was part of the inspection of the facility has been asked to wait behind to carry out a thorough assessment of the facility. The reason for this, according to the sources, was to ensure that the final technical report would be made available to the management of the DPR which would give the company final nod for full operation of the plants.
The sources told BusinessDay that barring any unforeseen circumstances, the facility would scale through all the technical tests based on what they saw on the ground.
“Everything is ok, that is why Ahmad Shakur, director of the DPR, also went to see things himself because the project is also in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of working towards Nigeria being self-sufficient domestically in terms of refined petroleum products,” one of the sources said.
The source said the company has completed both capacity expansion of Train II and Train III, which has put it on a strong footing to commence production.
But the Shakur, acting director of DPR, in his response promised to drive the deepening of private refinery initiative in Nigeria by providing the necessary regulatory oversight collaboration with prospective investors.
Shakur, who visited the facility for the pre-commissioning, commended the marginal field operator for its commitment to national development and said that patriotism, professionalism, and passion were the driving forces behind the success story of the company.
He enjoined other marginal field operators to follow the example of NDPR in order for the country to attain petroleum product sufficiency.
NDPR was granted a licence to operate (LTO) a 1.0kbd modular diesel stripping plant by DPR in 2012, and approval to construct (ATC) for expansion which will increase refining capacity to 6.0kbd was granted in 2017.
OLUSOLA BELLO & DIPO OLADEHINDE
