Iheanacho’s refinery project receives American EXIM Bank support

By Richards Adeniyi

A new refinery project being carried out by Integrated Oil & Gas Limited as part of the $450m Tomaro Industrial Trade Park in Apapa has received a big boost from the United States Government.

Apart from the $800,000 given as support for the engineering design by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the United State Export, Import Bank has also offered to finance 85 percent of the US content.

Chairman of the Company, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho told National Daily that since the refinery itself is of American design, 85 percent of the US content is the Central Processing Unit of the refinery.

Iheanacho also disclosed that the cost of the US content will be $32million.

According to him, “85 percent of the US content is the Central Processing Unit of the refinery. The refinery will be of American design. It will cost about $32 to buy that piece. They will give us 85 percent of that money and we will then bring 15percent of it as our contribution”.

However, Iheanacho explained that the cost for the US content was different from the total cost of building the refinery which he put at $116 million.

He explained, “The amount of the entire refinery is $116 million, so there will be about $80m that we have to look for”.

He expressed optimism that there will not be any issue of funding the project considering the interests demonstrated so far by potential investors.

He said, “we have taken our time to plan this project… if people see the US EXIM investing its money in an idea, if they see the USTDA also supporting by shelling out $800000 of it, then they will know that the project is being well conceived and so it will spur other people to come forward to also put in their resources by way of equity”.

Iheanacho also said some investors have shown interest in the project, but added the company has been adopting the policy of first approach to everything.

He disclosed that having carried out the detailed engineering work, the company will be hosting technical experts from the United States, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) for a review meeting of the project.