President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday commissioned a 5,000 barrels per day Modular Refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State.
Although the refinery was built by Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, the Federal Government holds a stake in the refinery through the Nig erian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
President Buhari who commissioned refinary virtually said it was in fulfillment of our Refinery Roadmap. I am pleased to note that work is now commencing on expansion of the capacity of the refinery to 50,000 barrels per day.
“We rolled out our administration’s Refinery Roadmap in 2018, with the ultimate goal of making Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products. The Roadmap has four key elements, namely, Rehabiliation of existing refineries, Greenfield Refineries, Co-location & Modular Refining.
“I am delighted that the Waltersmith Refinery is coming on-stream within two years of the commencement of the Roadmap, and after many years of granting licenses for the establishment of modular refineries with nothing to show for it.“
Waltersmith said the phase 1 of te project comprises of the 5,000bpd modular capacity refinery that is strategically located near the existing flow station. It will process the circa 6,000 boepd currently produced by the upstream business to the readily available market in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria.
It will contribute about 271 million litres of refined products including Diesel, Naptha, HFO and Kerosene annually to the domestic market and create both direct and indirect jobs particularly within the host communities.
The Chairman of Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Abdulrasaq Isah said, “We will be producing 271 million liters of petroleum products to meet some of the requirement of South Eastern market.”
Isah said the company decided to embark on the modular refinery project as a strategy to address incessant pipeline vandalism and theft of its crude oil products.
