August 20, (THEWILL) – 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.
Chief Executive Officer of the regulatory authority, Ahmed Farouk, presented the certificate to AIPCC, the parent company of Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited (ERPCL).
Farouk, who was accompanied by the Executive Director (ED), NMDPRA, Hydrocarbon Processing Plant Installation and Transport Infrastructure (HPPITI), Francis Ogaree, handed over the operational licence to the refinery Head of Technical Operations, Segun Okeni.
He commended the company for attaining this feat and urged the firm to do more.
On his part, the NMDPRA Executive Director assured the management of the refinery that the regulatory authority is a business enabler and will be ready to give AIPCC Energy/Edo Refinery all the necessary support in all its projects.
Responding on behalf of AIPCC Energy, Okeni said the company is out there to make her contributions to the petroleum refinery and gas processing subsector.
In a statement on Tuesday, Okeni explained that the operational licence is the final stage of approval from the regulatory authority, which he said implies that the plant can now fully operate as a refinery.
“It starts from License to Establish (LTE), Licence to Construct (LTC), Approval to introduce Hydrocarbon, pre-commissioning and commissioning, operate the refinery for some time to ensure it has the capacity to do so and finally the Licence to Operate LTO.
“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, 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 field,” he said.
The NMDPRA is the technical and commercial regulator of midstream and downstream operations in the petroleum industry. Issuance of an operational licence is the final stage of approval from the regulatory authority, which implies that the plant can now fully operate as a refinery.
