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Top executives of ShawStone & Webster/AIM of United States of America have arrived Nigeria to begin preliminary works on the flag off of construction of what would be Nigeria's first private refinery, Orient Refining and Petrochemicals Company located at Anam in Anambra State.
Top executives of ShawStone & Webster/AIM of United States of America have arrived Nigeria to begin preliminary works on the flag off of construction of what would be Nigeria's first private refinery, Orient Refining and Petrochemicals Company located at Anam in Anambra State.
The eight-man executive and technical team is led by the Vice President of the company, Mr. Don Bernard, and the Project Manager, Mr. Kith Naver. The team would hold strategy meetings with the Nigerian investors on the work programme for the commencement of the first phase of both the refinery and the upstream arm of the project, Orient Exploration and Production Company (OEPC).
According to the Managing Director of Orient Petroleum Resources Limited (OPRL), Engineer Nnaemeka Nwawka, a grand reception for the foreign partners have been slated for Tuesday, August 09 2005 at the Banquet Hall of the Tourist Garden Hotel Awka, Anambra State where dignitaries in the Nigerian oil industry, other industrialists would join the chairman of OPRL, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary General, and the Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, in formally welcoming the Shaw-Stone & Webster/AIM to Nigeria.
The refinery has a total capacity of 55,000 barrels per day. The first phase which has 21, 222 barrels per day capacity, will be constructed on a fast track basis to provide for early production of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lubricating oils, waxes and asphalt, which are scarce in the country and are currently being imported in large quantities.
The early start-up of the first phase refinery will provide initial supply of these critical products, provide early cash flow for OPRL, and allow for an orderly, phased development of product markets and distribution.
The second and third phases construction will bring the refinery to its final design capacity, and add major processing units for increasing the yield.
The product slate has been selected carefully, consi-dering the inland location of the Refinery, the current supply/demand imbalance and acute scarcity of critical products, opportunities for import substitution and a zero waste environmental concept.
The refinery design was based on three alternative sources of crude, namely, barging Brass blend crude up the Niger and Anambra Rivers, construction of a by-pass from the NNPC Auchi to Enugu pipeline and the development of nearby oil and gas fields in former OMLs 7, 105, 106, 107, (now OPLs 915 and 916). Of the three options, the most dependable in the long term that will secure the huge investment in the refinery is to develop the nearby fields.
The oil and gas
concessions in the erstwhile OMLs 7,105, 106, 107, which are within the vicinity of the refinery site, had been left idle for many decades. The Federal Government in February 2005 granted approval to OPRL to explore, appraise and develop them in order to fully secure hydrocarbon supply to the refinery under the OPLs 915 and 916 licence blocks for OPRL to operate on 100% basis.