10 October 2005
The Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani has expressed satisfaction with the pace of work in the establishment of Nigeria's first private refinery, Orient Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited.
Addressing the cream of Nigeria's public and private sector decision makers in Abuja last weekend at the business dinner put together by the promoters of Orient Refinery, Chief Nnamani stated that the Federal Government has no doubt in the ability of the promoters to conclude the project in the next one year, given the calibre and credibility of the personalities involved.
Orient Petroleum Refinery is being promoted by a group of Nigerian investors, headed by the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, as the chairman of the board of directors with former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr. Alex Ekwueme as the Vice Chairman, and Ambassador Arthur Mbanefo, among the key promoters on the board of the oil company.
Already, all necessary approvals for the project has been granted by the Federal Government, with President Olusegun Obasanjo pledging the Federal Government's interest in seeing the project concluded and commissioned before the end of the present regime as a major achievement of his administration under the on-going downstream deregulation.
According to the Managing Director of the company, Engineer Nnaemeka Nwawka, Orient Refinery is already under construction at the facilities of its foreign technical partners, Shawstone and Webster Inc. of USA, adding that after the off-shore construction, the plant would be mounted on the platform being prepared at the refinery site in Anam, Anambra State mid next year.
Earlier in the week, Chief J. K. Randle, an accountant of great repute, speaking during a business dinner in Lagos, had reviewed the business and financial model of the Orient Refinery project and concluded that it would be one of the best equity investments in Africa, given its strategic position in the Nigerian economy.
Similarly, Chief Ausbeth Ajagu, a notable industrialist and ACB International Bank chairman, Professor Green Nwankwo have expressed delight in investment profile and business plan of Orient Refinery which they said is the most attractive in the economy so far. They urged the promoters to expand the scope of participation to all Nigerians in order to make the project a model national institution.
Earlier in his address, Chief Anyaoku had stated that it was the objective of the promoters to change the plight of Nigeria's economy as dependent on fuel importation amidst abundant crude resources while at the same time provide the industrial base for the manufacture of PVC and other related secondary raw materials locally.
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