Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited will commence operations in the 5,000 bpd modular refinery in Nigeria by September 2020.

This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer, Chikezie Nwosu, on Wednesday, 26th August 2020, during a webinar. He said the company plans to increase its output to 30,000 barrels a day in two years.

The company is Nigeria’s first oil-producer from marginal fields. The refinery was scheduled for commissioning in May but had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The crude processing plant is located in Ibigwe, Imo state, Nigeria. It is part of an industrial energy park that is to serve as a manufacturing hub for oil and gas components. It includes a 30-megawatt power station, which is to be expanded to about 300 megawatts in the future.

Nwosu said, “We expect that by September we should be ready to test-run the refinery, now at 98% completion,” he said. “We’re going to grow its capacity by an additional 25,000 barrels a day to make it 30,000 barrels.”

The modular refineries in Nigeria are aimed at increasing the total daily output of oil to the African continent’s largest producer’s name. A revamp of the state-owned oil refineries is currently underway and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is also building a 650,000 barrels per day refinery in Nigeria. All of these will help cut the country’s annual fuel import amount.

The Waltersmith refinery is one of the three refineries ready for commissioning in Nigeria. Others are the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Modular Refinery in Rivers State and the Opac Modular Refinery in Delta State.

Other modular refineries that are yet to be completed are Ikwe-Onna Refinery in Akwa Ibom State, Azikel Refinery in Bayelsa State and AIPCC Refinery in Edo State.

Earlier in January, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in partnership with Waltersmith Petroleum Oil Limited, said it aims to assist Equatorial Guinea in the development of in-country modular refineries. This was made known when the Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Equatorial Guinea, H.E. Gabriel Obiang Lima, was on a tour of the refinery alongside the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote, and Chairperson of Waltersmith, Abdulrazaq Isah.