- In line with the present administration’s intention to reduce the volume of imported refined petroleum products, promoters of another privately owned refinery in Nigeria, on Saturday in Lagos, disclosed plans to commence the building of a 107,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Okporoma, Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa State.
- The refinery, called Epic refinery, licensed by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) with licence number: PI/ES/MSF/6239/S.233/292, dated June 15, 2015, is expected to start operations in the next 12 months.
“In terms of production volume, Epic refinery is the third on the list after Dangote and one other refinery, and we have been working hard to put things right so that the project will be up and running in the next 12 months,” Barango Mathew Wenke Jnr, president/CEO, Epic Refinery Group, said while briefing newsmen in Lagos.
It is a big shame that Nigeria, which is one of the largest oil producing state, is still importing refined petroleum products. We want to support the Federal Government with 30,000bpd mid-stream production to complement the volume that will be produced by Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, and we strongly believe that Epic, if fully operational, will help the present administration to achieve its bid of removing subsidy,” he said.
- While disclosing that the project is a foreign direct investment, the Epic boss said refineries were better functional when there was access to crude. Epic is sure of its raw material because the refinery will seat in between two oil majors, Agip and Shell.
- He called on the government to deregulate the downstream sector, support local refineries and encourage local investors by allocating marginal fields and oil blocs to competent investors to enhance their operations.
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