*as Jonathan commissions oil output
*goes full capacity 2014, refining begins 2013
Nearly forty-five years after Safrap, now Total Plc first discovered and drilled oil in the location, the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyoku who is the chairman of the Orient Petroleum Resources Ltd (OPR) has now led the state into the elite oil producing states’ club.
Therefore, come August 30, 2012 President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to commission the production of oil at the 55,000bpd first wholly privately owned Orient Petroleum Resources’ (OPR) oil rig at Aguleri, Anambra East council of the state.
The company, according to its Managing Director, Chief Emeka Nwawka, an engineer, is currently stock-piling the produced crude in large barges at the site ahead of their refinery which would be commissioned in few months time.
The chief Executive also confirmed that they have resolved in writing all initial disagreements over the location and area covered by their operations with the Enugu state government. He said they sorted things out at a round table discussion with the Secretary to the state, Chief Patrick Okolo and the Attorney General, Chief Anthony Ani as well as the chairman of the Uzor Uwani council, Chief Onwubuya.
Nwawka stated that the two oil blocs sitting on an acreage of 2158km2 extends a little bit into Edo, Delta and Enugu states, but that the location of the well in Anambra was never in any form of dispute.
FG had granted two oil blocs marked as OPL 915 and 916 to the company in 2002, from when after studying and analyzing the seismic data thereto, decided to proceed with its full development. The actual drilling process which commemced few months ago began with their re-entry of the OPL 915, otherwise referred to as Anambra River 1 which had first been drilled about 45 years ago in 1967 by the Safrap(which later became Elf , and later again to Total Plc)
More so, the export details and processes were already being worked out with the appropriate Federal agencies too.
He disclosed that already, the detailed engineering aspects of the refinery have been completed.
The Managing Director also confirmed that the installation of the modules have planned in phases. That the Phase One with a 20,000bpd capacity would be ready next year(2013), during which it’s expected that the whole project which journey began in 2002 would have gulped more than One hundred million dollars ($100m).
While Phase Two with 35,000 bpd capacity was expected to be ready the following year in 2014. It was therefore expected that when fully completed to installed output capacity of 55,000bpd in 2014 it would have taken about $200m.
This is against the proposed six new refineries by the Federal Government that would cost Nigerian tax payers $750m each, with proposed installed capacity of 30,000bpd output.
Nwawka stated that the modular plan gives them confidence boost that with anticipated enhanced cash flow from the initial module, they would then re-invest in the extension of the increased refining capacity. It would also support other ancillary needs like the roads, tanks, workshops, electricity generation and others.
Orient Petroleum Resources operators of the Orient Refinery and other subsidiaries was a wholly privately owned shareholding venture promoted in 2001. It has numerous shareholders base from all parts of the country, together with some councils and state governments as minority investors, including Rivers, Anambra and the 21 councils of Anambra state.
The license to construct a refinery was granted by the FG in 2002 and with due operational diligence it secured the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate in 2005. Thus became the first to be so certified in the country’s oil sector.
The OPR example may be the shining example the nation needs to break away from the refining and supply hiccups of the sector which had over the years been used to distort the budgetary permutations of the various levels of government especially the FG, having become so bogged down by political/industrial disharmony and manipulations of key players in the industry for so long.
Nwawka however noted that work ethics and attitude to work remains the main driving force towards success irrespective of the size or cost of particular project, including a refinery like OPR.
