Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, HOSCOM, said it has met over 50 per cent of the total requirements put forward by the Department for Petroleum Resources, DPR, for its planned 10 modular refineries in oil- producing states in the country.
In an interview with Vanguard in Abuja, National Chairman of HOSCOM, Mr. Mike Emuh, disclosed that within the next couple of weeks, the group would have fulfilled almost all of the requirements for the construction of the refineries.
Emuh, who was speaking after a meeting with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the leadership of HOSCOM, stated that the first set of refineries would be completed by 2018. He noted that its foreign technical partners, who are also financiers of the project, have already provided proof of funding for the project. Emuh said that HOSCOM had also registered the Pan Niger-Delta Hydrocarbon Refineries, which is going to be the umbrella body that would cover all the refineries set up in the communities. He said: “In this situation, it is not business as usual, in the sense that in the past four to six years, modular refineries licenses were granted to people who could not actually meet up with the demands and the needs. “HOSCOM has gone far; we have gone the extra mile. We have gotten the land; we have done the survey in the various states; we have entered into Memoranda of Understanding with communities; communities have gone to the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, to register their modular refineries; they have passed the first and second stages; we have brought in foreign technical partners and financiers to finance the modular refineries. “A modular refinery is not less than N10 billion, no matter how small it is. But our foreign technical partners are ready to finance modular refineries with up to N100 billion. Now that the foreign technical partners and financiers are ready to provide the proof of funds to the Federal Government, the government is now engaging us to make sure things work out well.” Emuh disclosed that apart from issues of the modular refineries, deliberations also centred on the employment of 10,000 Niger-Delta youths for the policing of pipelines and other oil and gas installations across the country. “In the pipeline surveillance deliberations, it was agreed that some percentage of the contracts would go to the old contractors, while some percentage would go to new contractors, so that all would work together; the old contractors, who are now like cabals or cartels, and the new contractors who want to diffuse positive, new modern technologies and innovations, towards pipeline, oil and gas installations security, and the host communities that are the custodians.”
