Financial Energy Review
by Ben Ndubuwa………………..
The Chief Executive Officer, Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Chikezie Nwosu has said that the modular refinery project the company is building in Ohaji/Egbema in Imo State will be commissioned next month September, 2020.
Nwosu also said that plans are underway to increase the capacity of the refinery by 25,000 barrels per day in the year 2022. This will bring the capacity of the refinery to 30,000 barrels a day. According to him the project is 98 percent completion.
This was disclosed by Nwosu, on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.
“We expect that by September we should be ready to test-run the refinery, now at 98% completion. We are going to grow its capacity by an additional 25,000 barrels a day to make it 30,000 barrels” he said
Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited and Hawtai Energy Hongkong were granted a 40 percent interest each in the oil block, while Equatorial Guinea’s national oil company, GE Petrol, was granted 20 percent. This is according to a statement from the Equatorial Guinea Government.
Nwosu explained that the earlier plan to commission the refinery, which was built by Houston-based VFuels, in May was hampered by the Coronavirus pandemic
The refinery, which is expected to primarily serve the South-Eastern part of the country, 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
According to him, the crude processing plant is part of a bigger industrial energy park that will serve as a manufacturing base for oil and gas components.
“The project includes a 30-megawatt power station, which Waltersmith will expand to about 300 megawatts,” he added.
Waltersmith refinery will join the league of the new generation refineries coming onstream this year, including Edo refinery and petrochemical plant. These and many other modular refineries are expected to fill the gap created by the nation’s failed refineries which government plans to revitalised by Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with private investors.
The nation’s refineries did not refine a single barrel of crude oil in a while year, but reportedly incurred a combined operating expense of N142.07 billion, according to the latest earnings report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The NNPC, attributed the abysmal operational performance of the refineries to an ongoing revamping process aimed at further enhancing their capacity utilisation once completed.
The refineries, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have continued to operate far below the installed capacity.
Meanwhile, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is also building a refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels a day that will help cut Nigeria’s $7 billion annual fuel-import bill.
