The Group Managing Director of Integrated
Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Anthony Iheanacho has said that the company
would conclude the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies for its
20,000 barrels per day modular refinery in the next few weeks.
The refinery is the first of its kind to be undertaken by any private marketer of petroleum products in Nigeria.
He said as soon as the EIA was completed
and all the requisite approvals obtained, the company would embark on
the construction of the refinery, which would initially produce diesel,
export quality Naphtha, kerosene, fuel oil and aviation fuel.
Iheanacho, who conducted journalists
around the project site in Tomaro Island part of Lagos at the weekend,
explained that work had not started because all the approvals had not
been obtained and the EIA not concluded.
He however, stated that the company had
drawn up the front end engineering design (FEED) and submitted to the
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“We are waiting for Approval to Construct
(ATC). We will organise stakeholders workshop on Tuesday (today) in
Lagos where federal, State and local government’s agencies will rub
minds together with the communities. It is a workshop where the federal
government will be convinced that the communities are happy with the
project and not opposed to it. After the workshop, the next stage is a
public hearing. That is where journalists will also be invited. The
outcome of the stakeholders’ workshop will form part of the
presentations at the public hearing. I was talking with our consultant
today and he said that the EIA process will be through in about 10
weeks,” Iheanacho explained.
He refuted earlier reports that work was
ongoing at the refinery, stressing that the company must comply with all
extant regulations before embarking on the construction of the plant.
Iheanacho said the report that the
company was engaged in construction and that buildings in the area were
cracking was mischievous and intended to malign the reputation of the
company.
“If you look very well, the only thing
you can see is the fence we did not prevent encroachment; it is a
demarcation fence and nothing else has been done expect the fence. We
are still in the process of EIA. We have concluded the dry season data
collection. After the wet season data collection, we will start work.
EIA is the basic thing you must do in a project of this nature before
you start work,” Iheanacho added.
He also refuted insinuations that the
host communities were aggrieved and pointed out that the communities had
apologised to the company over the false report authored by a resident
of one of the communities purporting to be acting on behalf of the
people of the area.
“You read the strange story from one
funny fellow that we had commenced work. You have seen for yourself that
we have not started any work. Nothing is going on here. What we did was
to clear the site so that when you stand here, you can see everywhere;
so that when our partners also come, they can see through. But for now,
no construction work has commenced,” Iheanacho explained.
Ejiofor Alike/Thisday
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