Anyaoku, the Orient's Board of Directors' chairman, disclosed this during a visit to the oil company's facilities in Anambra State. He said the company would start production in a couple of weeks; adding that the company’s service contractor had made significant progress in the acquisition of high resolution 3D seismic data over 640 square kilometers of Orient’s oil blocks OPL 915 & 916 to delineate the full extent of the hydrocarbon discoveries and prospects.
Crude oil production, when it starts at the oil well, would mark the first time crude was produced in inland basin in Nigeria. The crude will be evacuated via a 10 -kilometre flow line to a spot at Anambra River basin from where evacuation of crude would be undertaken by barges to Brass in Bayelsa State.
According to Anyaoku, Orient has finalised the detailed engineering and sourced the modules of its 55, 000 bpd refinery. It had also completed the geo-technical, geological and hydro-geological surveys and civil engineering works for installation of refinery equipment.
It had also completed acquisition of 7 hectares of land from Kogi State for establishment of a depot for distribution of petroleum products from the refinery to the north and other parts of the country.
Background of Orient Petroleum
Orient Petroleum Resources Plc (OPR) was established to harness the vast but mostly untapped mineral, agricultural and human resources, especially hydrocarbon deposits in Anambra Basin, for the industrialization of the area, improvement of the socio-economic well-being of the people while creating value for the stakeholders. OPR’s activities will span the entire spectrum of the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry. OPR, in partnership with other investors, will explore and produce oil and gas from the Anambra Basin. OPR will locate geological structures in which hydrocarbons may be trapped, using satellite photography, seismic surveys and other modern techniques.
The presence of oil and gas has been confirmed by hitherto drilled exploration and appraisal wells in the prospective areas. OPR, together with its other partners, will further develop viable fields with additional exploration, drilling and production activities and by building necessary support infrastructure.
The full conversion Orient Refinery with capacity of 55,000 bbls/day, shall process Anambra Basin and Nigerian Brass River crude oil feedstock, primarily for the production of gasoline, domestic kerosene, jet fuel, diesel fuel and LPG from 2009.
Orient Petroleum Resources Plc (OPR), RC No. 422200, was incorporated on 20th July 2001. The company has four subsidiaries incorporated to take care of the full spectrum of upstream and downstream oil and gas activities of the company, as follows:
a) OPR-Refining & Petrochemicals Plc, (OPR-R&P), for the purpose of establishing and operating a petroleum refinery to process crude oil into refined petroleum products and petrochemicals.
b) OPR – E&P Company Limited, (OPR-E&P), to manage exploration and production of oil and gas from its concessions.
c) OPR – Gas & Power Company Limited, (OPR-G&P), to manage gas processing and supply to industries and independent power generation and distribution, and
d) OPR – Infrastructure & Services Company Limited, (OPR-I&S), to manage necessary infrastructure and provide quality support services
