The regulatory body’s last step of approval is the granting of an operating license, which indicates that the plant is now fully functioning as a refinery.
The parent firm of Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, AIPCC, received the certificate from the authority’s chief executive officer, Ahmed Farouk, during a ceremony on Tuesday.
Farouk gave Segun Okeni, the refinery’s head of technical operations, the operating license. He was accompanied by Francis Ogaree, the executive director of NMDPRA, Hydrocarbon Processing Plant Installation and Transport Infrastructure.
Farouk urged the corporation to do more during the handover and praised them for accomplishing the goal.
Okeni, for his part, gave the refinery’s management his word that the regulatory body is a business facilitator and will be prepared to provide AIPCC Energy/Edo Refinery with all the help it needs for all of its initiatives.
The Head of Technical Operations of Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited, Okeni, responded on behalf of AIPCC Energy, stating that the company aims to contribute to the petroleum refinery and gas processing subsector.
He revealed that the AIPCC is working on three other projects, one of which will be finished within the upcoming year.
In a statement made public following the event, Okeni stated that the operational license represents the last level of regulatory authority approval, meaning that the plant can now function entirely as a refinery.
The license to establish, the license to construct, the approval to introduce hydrocarbon, pre- and post-commissioning, operating the refinery for a while to make sure it can do so, and the license to run LTO are the first steps in the process, he continued.
According to Okeni, the refinery is finalizing agreements with a domestic oil business in order to obtain crude oil for the best possible production capacity.
“We are concluding a significant crude supply agreement with an indigenous oil company,” he continued. Even though they have been helpful, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and NMDPRA often grant us immediate approval once we locate a source of petroleum.
“NUPRC should take into account current local refineries in the bidding round for marginal fields, though, with this licensing.”
