Page 8 - DMEA Week 30 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Azikel awards O&M contract for new refinery

AFRICA AZIKEL Petroleum this week announced the Monitoring Board (NCDMB), which acquired
award of a five-year contract with US-based PIC an equity stake in the refinery in 2019 after it
Group for operations and maintenance (O&M) picked up 30% stake in Waltersmith Refining
at its new modular refinery in Nigeria’s Bayelsa and Petrochemical Co.’s Ibigwe modular refinery
State. in Imo State a year earlier.
A statement from PIC said that it would In mid-2020, NCDMB acquired equity in
provide O&M support services “including Duport Midstream Company Ltd’s project to
site-specific integrated operation & maintenance build an energy park in Edo State that includes
procedures, a systematic approach to training as a 2,500 bpd modular refinery, a 30mn cubic feet
well as operational support in the form of over- (850,000 cubic metres) per day gas processing
sight and mentoring of refinery personnel”. facility and a 2-MW power plant.
Once complete, the Azikel Hydroskimming In May, Azikel hired UAE-based Chemie
Modular Refinery will have a throughput pro- Tech as its engineering, procurement and con-
cessing capacity of 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) struction (EPC) contractor for the refinery
of crude to produce around 1.3mn litres per year under a lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) contract.
of premium motor spirit (gasoline), diesel, ker- The contract covers project management, resid-
osene, cooking gas (LPG) and a small amount of ual process engineering, detailed engineering,
heavy fuel oil. It had originally been expected to procurement, fabrication, installation, construc-
enter operation in 2018 but is now due on stream tion, testing, precommissioning, commissioning
later this year. and performance-guarantee test run (PGTR)
The refinery will receive feedstock of Nigerian activities for the refinery.
Bonny Light crude and condensate via pipeline The Emirati firm had previously completed
directly from Royal Dutch Shell’s Gbaran-Ubie front-end engineering design (FEED) of the
gas gathering facility, which is located on the refinery’s outside battery limits (OSBL) areas as
unit’s eastern boundary. well early works on the project.
Upon signing the deal with PIC, Dr. Eruani Meanwhile, a year ago US services specialist
Azibapu Godbless, president of Azikel, said: McDermott was awarded an engineering and
“Training of our staff was of paramount impor- procurement (EP) contract covering the detailed
tance to Azikel in our selection of the O&M ser- engineering and design of the inside battery lim-
vices contractor, and we are very pleased with the its (ISBL) modular refinery as well as the supply
comprehensive programme proposed by the PIC of equipment and tagged items.
Group.” The company has been collaborating with
This aligns with the involvement in the devel- Azikel since 2018, during which time it has been
opment of Nigeria’s Content Development and carrying out an extended FEED contract.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 29•July•2021