The management of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has issued an operational licence to Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited, Ologbo in Ikpoba-Okha local government area of Edo State.
The NMDPRA is the Technical and Commercial Regulator of Midstream and Downstream Operations in the petroleum industry with its issuance of operational licence being the final stage of approval from the regulatory authority that would make the plant operate as a refinery.
The authority Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Ahmed Farouk in a ceremony, handed the certificate to AIPCC, the parent company of the Edo Refinery.
Farouk, who was accompanied by the Executive Director (ED), NMDPRA, Hydrocarbon Processing Plant Installation and Transport Infrastructure (HPPITI), Mr Francis Ogaree, handed over the operational licence to the refinery Head, Technical Operations, Segun Okeni.
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The NMDPRA boss assured the management of the refinery that the regulatory authority is a business enabler and would be ready to give the refinery all the necessary support in all its projects.
On his part, Okeni, in a statement made available to journalists in Benin City on Tuesday, said the company is out to make her contributions to the petroleum refinery and gas processing subsector adding that the AIPCC is developing three other projects and one of such would be completed in the next one year.
Speaking on the alleged non-allocation of crude from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Okeni revealed that the refinery is finalising arrangements with an indigenous oil company to access crude oil for optimal production capacity.
“We are finalising a major crude supply agreement with an indigenous oil company.
“Although the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and NMDPRA have been supportive but once we find a source of crude they will normally give us urgent approval.
However with this licensing, NUPRC ought to consider existing local refineries in the bidding round for marginal fields”, he said.
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