AGAINST the backdrop of unemployment challenge and insufficient supply of petroleum products, Bayelsa based industrialist and Group President of Azikel Group, Dr Azibapu Eruani has said that the oil and gas section of the group is targeted to support the Federal Government in improving capacity and increase production and supply of petroleum products in the country.
Eruani, speaking at the coronation of His Royal Majesty, King Dumaro Charles Owaba, Obanohban lll of Ogbia kingdom in Ogbia Council area of Bayelsa State, noted that Bayelsa is the epicenter where oil was struck in 1956 in Oloibiri community in Ogbia Local Government Area in commercial quantity, but yet Bayelsans have not been able to access the industrial space as keep players in the oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy.
The Azikel Group President was full of commendation for President Muhammedu Buhari for granting the initial 23 licenses to oil firms at the early onset of his administration in 2015, in which Azikel Petroleum is a beneficiary.
Eruani said this private refinery initiative by the Federal Government will have a huge payoff, adding that the earlier award of the license was also strategic success for this administration because the development of refinery either modular or conventional takes time to build, noting that work at the Azikel Refinery site is 60 percent completed, stressing that the Azikel Group is racing with time to be the first to commence production in 2018.
He explained that sequel to the increase in the end users of refined petroleum products, demand and the insufficiency, with the nation’s refineries producing at less than 15 percent in installed capacity, the Federal Government sagacity is germane to improve production, as the 23 firms granted licenses has the capacity to shore up production by over 700, 000 bpd to bridge the insufficiency gap.
Eruani averred that the replacement of illegal refineries with modular refineries was a welcome development by the Federal Government, as it would outlaw incessant destruction of national assets, damage to the Eco-system and robbing the nation of foreign reserve.
He alluded that the issuance of refinery and oil prospecting license by President Buhari was to integrate the people of the Niger Delta region in the sector, pointing out that it is a direct way of allowing the people to control their resources. On the location of the Azikel Refinery at Obunagh Gbarain in Yenagoa LGA, Dr. Eruani said it was based on economics of locating industry close to source of raw material, even though a lot of person anticipated the sitting of the project in his village Emadike.
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