A private firm, Epic Refinery Group (Epic), has announced its plans to construct a 107 000 bpd refinery in Bayelsa State. The firm which recently had an agreement with Chiron Refineries (Chiron), will increase the volume of locally refined petroleum products in Nigeria.

The Managing Director of Epic Refinery, Barango Mathew Wenke Jnr in his statement said the agreement followed the granting of the license for construction by the Department of Petroleum Resources in June 2015.

In his words “Epic Refinery Group is aware of the hardship and the needs of Nigerians and has taken a decision to commence the construction of a relocation refinery on its site in Bayelsa State. The agreement will enable Chiron to offer a consultancy function to Epic, which will help the company in finding the best match for Epic’s location. The future to finding a lasting solution to the energy problems in Nigeria is brownfield, as opposed to greenfield”

Both representatives of the company where at the signing of the agreement. The companies took the initiative as a response to the rising demand for refined products in Nigeria, despite the record lows for the price of crude oil in the international market.

The first phase of the refinery is expected to commence operations before the end of 2016, with production volume of 30 000 bpd.