The Government of Akwa Ibom State has received official gazette from the federal government, signaling the approval for 50,000 hectares Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone in the state.
The Gazette of the approval was presented to Governor Udom Emmanuel by a delegation from the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), led by its managing director, Mr Umana Okon Umana, weekend at the Executive Chambers, Government House, Uyo.
Governor Emmanuel thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the timely approval for the establishment of the Liberty Oil and Gas Free Zone in the state.
He said the free trade zone, which covers six local government areas including Ikot Abasi, Oruk Anam, Onna, Eastern Obolo, Mkpat Enin and Ibeno, is proposed to be the largest in Nigeria when completed.
Emmanuel stressed that this will give a boost to the state’s coconut refinery project and its consequent economic diversification.
The governor explained that the state-owned coconut refinery which will be driven by a combination of several technologies to enhance its operations once installed will serve as a major export hub of coconut virgin oil in Africa, adding that the refinery will be multi-facetedand digitized with capacity to process other economic products like palm kernel.
“Within this oil and gas free zones we are installing the largest coconut refinery that will do crude extraction of coconut oil in Africa. That same refinery without changing a pan can process palm kernel oil, so it is going to be a multi-faceted, multi-purpose and digitized refinery”.