Eruani Lists Benefits of Azikel Refinery to Economy, Project Excites DiriOlusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

President of Azikel Group, Dr. Azibapu Eruani, yesterday, said the objective of the Azikel Petroleum Refinery was to add value to the Nigerian crude, create employment, industrialisation of the nation, and refined petroleum product availability.
Eruani said when he received the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, who paid him a courtesy visit at the refinery in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

He said the refinery at the completion stage signalled the industrialisation of Bayelsa and Nigeria as whole, even as he noted that the project would make the state to be counted among those that host refinery.
The President and owner of Azikel Refinery emphasised the uniqueness of the refinery in Africa, as the only refinery that utilises both crude oil and condensate as feedstock to refine premium petroleum products.

“The Azikel Refinery stands out as the first and only condensate hydro-skimming refinery in the entire Africa sub-region,” he said.
He explained that the Azikel Refinery was creating a market for condensate being wasted, thereby adding value to it.
“The Azikel Refinery is different from topping plants, which are modular refineries that produces only diesel,” he said, even as he assured the people of the state and Nigeria that production from the Azikel Refinery would be about five million litres of premium products daily which would redress scarcity and ensure product sufficiency to the citizenry.

He posited that the Azikel Refinery has closed the unemployment gap employment of over 400 indigenous and expatriate workers, while 250 are Bayelsans and other Nigerians.
According to him, to ensure that youths employed in Bayelsa are proficient, management took time to train and improve their skills in tandem with best practice and modern refinery operations.

Azikel Refinery which is an $850 million investment, upon completion would be the major internal  revenue stream to the Bayelsa State government and Nigeria.
He noted that the Azikel Refinery is 87 percent completed, stressing that in the near future the value created would put smiles on the faces of the people of the state and Nigerians.

“As at today the Azikel Refinery completion status of the  OSBL (Outside Battery Limits) is 100 percent complete while the ISBL (Inside Battery Limits) is 74 per cent completed; and the overall completion is 87 per cent completed,” he added.
In his remarks, Diri said efforts to market Bayelsa State have paid off with the Azikel Petroleum refinery which is at completion stage.

An exited Diri, who extolled the Azikel Chief Executive for citing his refinery in Bayelsa, said Eruani, has broken the jinx in establishing the Azikel Modular Refinery, which is the first crude oil-related industry in the state.