OLAX Engineering has hit key milestones for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) work on the 200,000 barrel per day BUA refinery project.
BUA Group’s chairman Abdulsamad Rabiu visited OLAX’s Reading offices recently and welcomed the progress. “They have an excellent and well experienced team. I have full confidence that working with OLAX will help us achieve our project goals and objectives,” Rabiu said.
The engineering company’s CEO, Jamal Akinade, described the refinery plan as exciting “for us, for BUA Group and for Nigeria”.
He went on to say the FEED work was a “testament to our ambitions as a growing company. We pride ourselves on technical integrity and being reliable partners and we shall adhere to these core values in delivering this project within schedule and budget.”
OLAX is carrying out the owners engineering and project management contract (PMC) work on the refinery, in the UK and Nigeria. BUA plans to build the plant, including a petrochemical complex, in Ibeno, in Akwa Ibom State.
The refinery will produce Euro-V gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG and polypropylene.
Plans afoot
OLAX started work on the BUA refinery in October 2020. . France’s Axens will provide the technology. KBR is the FEED engineering contractor for the refinery.
Nigeria’s refining sector is on the cusp of change. While the country is a major oil producer, it relies on imports to meet virtually all of its domestic demand.
The government has been eager to change this. Perhaps the most significant change will come with the start up of the Dangote refinery in 2022. This will have capacity of 650,000 bpd.
Tecnimont is working on repairing the twin refineries of Port Harcourt, which have total capacity of 210,000 bpd. The first phase of work should take the plant to 90% of capacity by September 2022.
Furthermore, at least five modular refineries are under construction in the Niger Delta.
Recommended for you
