President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to commission the first phase of a brand new petroleum refinery, located at Ibigwe, Imo State and owned by oil and gas integrated firm, Waltersmith Limited, this week.
The Federal Government holds a stake in the refinery, following an investment by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
This disclosure was made by the presidency through a tweet post on his official Twitter handle on Sunday, November 21, 2020.
The presidency in its tweet post said, “This week President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the first phase of a brand new petroleum refinery by Walter Smith Limited, located at Ibigwe in Imo State. The Nigerian Government holds a stake in the refinery, following an investment by NCDMB.”
The phase 1 of the project is the delivery of 5,000 barrels per day (BPD) Modular capacity refinery that is strategically located near the existing flow station and will process the circa 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) currently produced by the upstream business to the readily available market in the south-eastern part of Nigeria.
This is expected to 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 second phase is the delivery of 25,000 BPD crude and condensates refinery; an upgrade on the 5,000bpd modular refinery.
The project is still at an early stage of development but is designed to produce the following products: gasoline, diesel, LPG, kerosene and aviation fuel.
This is a huge boost to the Federal Government’s efforts to increase the country’s refining capacity of petroleum products and stop its importation.
Apart from the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery that is expected to come on stream, there are several other modular refineries that are expected to take off.