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Could you tell us how the WS refinery aligns with our Health and Safety Management plan, Emergency Response
sustainability foundations in WS?
I would like to approach this question from two perspectives-
the first is having a bird's eye view on the long-term
sustainability of the project and the second is more specific
to our sustainability foundations as an organization.
The long-term sustainability of the refinery will definitely
require some measure of support from the government. I can
say confidently that we have gotten to where we are today
with the support we received from the government in the
beginning. With the support of government, we have
initiated something on our own to try to add value to the
crude that is produced in Nigeria through this modular
refinery concept. Again, we feel pleased that we are one of
the companies that have played a role in trying to make a
success of another government policy, but we also want to
take that step further by going from a modular refinery to a
full-scale refinery of 50,000bpd. In order to achieve this, we
are going to need more government support to have access
to the crude feedstock we need, the business and policy
environment that will facilitate that.
With respect to our sustainability foundations, our refinery
operations will be anchored on implementation of energy
efficient measures in line with Nigeria's National Determined
Contributions (NDC) of the Paris agreement under the United
Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC).
The refinery and ancillary units have also been established in
line with international best practices and standards codes for
the petroleum industry. We are constantly carrying out air
quality and dispersion modelling at the project location for
environmental monitoring purposes and have developed a
comprehensive transportation impact assessment and traffic
management plan for the project lifespan. Occupational
and Chemical spill contingency plan has been developed for
the project lifespan. It is also expected that the project will
contribute directly to job creation and enhance economic
stimulus in the community.
What has been the reaction of the community to the refinery
and how did you integrate their concerns and expectations
into the project?
I have to say that one stakeholder that has been very
supportive is the community-they are critical to the overall
sustainability of this project because if you do not have the
trust and good relationship with the community, you cannot
have your license to operate and because we have operated in
the community in the last 12 years, we have been able to
deliver on our corporate social responsibility (CSR)-once we
agree on things to do, we go ahead. We are like partners.
Many of these plans will not materialize if we do not have an
excellent working relationship with the community. The
community is a major anchor of all the things we want to do.
Since we have major investment plans for that area from
refinery, industrial park and attracting industries to come and
co-locate where we are, it is important for us to have a very
enduring relationship with the community and that I believe
we have. We do have a clear strategy of carrying everyone
along. We entered into a partnership centered GMOU with our
communities and we believe this will be very integral to the
success of our relationship as partners in the refinery.
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