Epic seals pact with Chiron to build 107,000bpd refinery in Nigeria

Epic Refinery Group, a private Nigerian-owned refinery to be located in Okporoma, Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa State, has entered into a new partnership with a foreign-based company known as Chiron Refineries, in its determination to increase the volume of locally refined petroleum products.

Barango Mathew Wenke Jnr, president/CEO, Epic Refineries, told BusinessDay that the deal was sealed at a parley involving the officials of the two companies in Lagos recently. Also present at the parley, which was at the instance of Epic Refinery Group, was Ron Kuperberg, CEO of Chiron Refineries, who specialises on relocation and assets management.

Wenke said Epic Refinery took the initiative in responses to the growing demand for in country refining of petroleum products in the midst of declining price of crude oil in the international market.

According to Wenke, experts world over have predicted that the price of crude oil may further drop to a low level of $20 per barrel, but the building of Epic Refinery will enable the country increase local refining capacity.

“Epic Refinery Group is aware of the hardship and the needs of Nigerians and has taken a decision to commence the construction of a re-location refinery on its site in Bayelsa State,” he said.

The agreement will enable Chiron to offer a consultancy function to Epic Group, which will help the company in finding the best match for Epic’s location, he said, saying, “the future to finding a lasting solution to the energy problems in Nigeria is brownfield, as opposed to Greenfield.”

Recall that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) mid last year granted Epic Group an approval with the licence number: PI/ES/MSF/6239/S.233/292 dated June 15, 2015, to build a refinery in Bayelsa State. The first phase of the refinery is expected to commence operations before the end of 2016, with production volume of 30,000bpd.