Two refineries estimated to cost about $16 billion with a combined refining capacity of 290,000 barrels per day are to be built in Ondo and Lagos States respectively.
Director of Ode Oya Refineries Ltd, Prince Bayo Otulana, who disclosed this to Inner room at the weekend, said the licence for the two refineries were obtained in 2005 but modalities were only recently finalised with the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
Otulana, who was in company with two foreign technical partners of the refineries, Mr. Felix Kadam and Hugh Neto, director and vice president technical respectively of Cospower Engineering Pvt Ltd, as well Mr Saviour Inyang of Savjane World Trade Ltd, financial guarantors of the project, explained that the refineries would come in two types; modular and greenfield.
According to him, the modular, which would come in three units, is semi-prefabricated version of the refinery which installation would be completed within a year for it to start operation by December 2017; while the greenfield version, expected to be built from the scratch on site would be completed within three years for operation to start in 2020.
He allayed fears that the regulated downstream sector of the Nigerian oil business could be harmful to private refinery operation in the country.
Similarly, Neto said the two refineries would employ cutting edge hi-tech to ensure products command high patronage within and outside Nigeria.