Launch of Egbokor Energy Park seen by end-March

Backers of the Egbokor Energy Park project are reportedly expecting construction work on the new facility, which is being built in the Orhionmwon Local Government Area (LGA) of Nigeria’s Edo State, to be completed in less than three months.

According to Dr. Akintoye Akindele, the CEO of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical, both the park’s owner, Duport Midstream, and the bank providing the financing, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), have said that the complex will be ready for inauguration by the end of March. The facility will eventually be home to a modular oil refinery, a natural gas-processing plant, a gas-fired thermal power plant (TPP) and a data centre, he said.

He stressed, though, that the Egbokor Energy Park would not begin operating at full capacity. Instead, he said, it will open in phases, since Duport is inaugurating the project to satisfy local authorities. The launch ceremony “is at the behest of the government [and] will happen at different levels,” he was quoted as saying by This Day.

The company’s immediate priority is to bring representatives of the relevant regulatory authorities to the site to “ensure that all we are ready,” he said. “We must test for a while,” he added. “We will start testing in the next 30 to 45 days for the government to confirm and commission.”

Akindele noted that Duport’s original plans called for the park’s first phase to have a 10,000 barrel per day (bpd) modular oil refinery, a 60mn cubic feet (1.7mn cubic metre) gas-processing plant, a 10 mmcf (283,200 cubic metre) CNG plant, a 50-MW TPP and a data centre. Now, though, the company will need more time to bring capacity up to that level, he said.

“This will be delivered in modules,” he said, according to This Day. “Module one or phase one will be going live in the next 30 days, and after we get approval from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to go live, we will be starting with a 2,500 bpd refinery, 40 mmcf [1.13 mcm] gas processing, 5-MW power [plant], a data centre and almost 20,000 tonnes of storage.”

He continued: “Our plan is that once we do this at the initial take-off, we will then add the other modules to it in a quarterly and biennial way. In that way, we will be able to utilise assets optimally, avoid wastage, look after the environment and create jobs.”

The project will help Nigeria improve domestic fuel supplies and reduce dependence on imported petroleum products while also making better use of its own oil and gas resources, he added.

Meanwhile, FCMB managing director Yemisi Edun also delivered a positive report, saying that the bank expected the Egbokor Energy Park to become operational soon. “The project is doing well in terms of financing and rating. I can say they are almost getting to completion,” she said. “The management are very much convinced that in the next 60 days they should be able to commission the project, and it fits our timeline.”