Max Adjoto, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
The 1000th Diesel Load out by truck happened at the Ogbelle Mini Refinery at about 13:00 hours (local time) on Saturday August 23, 2014.
The occasion was marked by a small celebration at the facility, located 40km north east of Port Harcourt, in Rivers state in the eastern Niger Delta Basin.
The Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR) operates the Ogbelle Marginal field from which it supplies crude oil as feed stock to the refinery it wholly owns, the only such operating facility not owned by Government. “We are very proud of the privileged accomplishment of not only conceiving of the idea, but implementing and running this small facility safely and in compliance to high environmentally compliant standards”, said Layiwola Fatona, Managing Director of NDPR.
The company has produced oil from the field since October 2005 and the refinery was commissioned in December 2011. It makes 120,000 litres of diesel from 1,000 Barrels of crude oil every day. With the Mini Refinery and a gas processing plant commissioned in 2012, the Ogbelle project is an integrated energy project. The field currently delivers 3,500BOPD of crude and evacuates 28MMscf/d of gas from its processing plant to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Bonny, also in Rivers state.
“Operationally”, Fatona told the 100+ guests, comprising of invitees from the Department of Petroleum Resources, some members of the company’s board, ranking industry professionals and over 50 employees of the company itself, “NDPR had run quite steadily and successfully these past two years and nine months”.
“If you line up 1000 trucks, you can evaluate the distance that will cover, say from between Port Harcourt and Warri”, enthused Adedoja Adejobi, president of the Nigerian Association Of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), who was present at the event.
“What is more important for us is the volume of high quality products we have therefore, since delivered and usefully provided to drive the domestic local economy”, Fatona, a 65 year old petroleum geologist, explained.
Adeyemi Adegbetan, driver of the lucky truck, who was until the event, a mystery Truck Driver, drove in at the Ogbele Mini refinery Loading bay, pulled up and his truck was loaded. He was ordinarily in a routine scheduling sequence. Having fully loaded his truck with ‘Diesel from the NDPR Ogbele Mini Refinery’. He was invited to join the party and was given a cash prize of Fifty Thousand Naira and a commemorative coverall. “Our own little marginal oil Field contribution to the history of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry”, Fatona told him.
Godwin Orugba Uweru, Managing Director of Powertrac Machinery, owner of the truck that Adegbtan was driving, noted the high quality of the diesel.
“This is part of the ongoing story of Ogbelle”, Fatona said, “the model of an integrated development”.
Mr. Layi Fatona , is one of the very few creative CEO that Nigeria should celebrate for honesty and ingenuity. Actualizing this dream shows how much we need the right thinking people in authority, with a modest 3500BOPD and 1000 Trucks of Diesel contributing to solving Nigeria problem of Subsidy.
Congratulations to Mr. Layi Fatona and others that are involve in the Project.
I am impressed. A glimmer of hope from the dark tunnel that most of us see around us. Keep up the good work. Completely Nigerian & local too.