By Godfrey Bivbere
Foreign investors from China and Europe have indicated interest in the $450 million Tomaro Industrial Park, which would generate about 2,000 direct employment for Nigerians.
Meanwhile foundation work for the project has commenced with the piling work for the platform that will hold the project’s storage tanks.
Chairman of Eko Refinery and Petrochemical, the promoters of the project and former Minister of Interior, Emmanuel Ihenacho, disclosed this during a media tour of the project yesterday.
Ihenacho said that companies from China and Europe have been making inquires about how they can be part of the project, especially after the funds made available by the government of the United States of America, USA.
He however said that the company has not responded to the enquiries because it wanted to complete the preliminary works.
He said response will be given to those who requested for partnership, and this will be followed by presentation to highlight areas for investment participation.
Ihenacho who conducted journalists around five of such piling works disclosed that work on the berthing space would soon commence with piling work expected to go as deep as 800 to 900 meters to make it solid, adding that the company intends to build a sleep way for ship building and repairs.
He noted that at completion of the shipyard, the company intends to start with the construction of 6,000 to 10,000 dead weight flat bottom vessels that can sail through some of the shallow waterways in the country, especially in the Escravos and Forcados areas where the draft is about 6.5 meters.
He further stated that the entire project will include the 20,000 capacity modular refinery, the ship building/ ship repair yard which also houses a fabrication facility, a helipad for helicopter services, accommodation facilities, strategic storage facility and others.
For the modular refinery, he noted that the $116 million facility with a 15 to 18 months completion time, would produce AGO, Kerosene, Fuel oil and Naphtha for a start but the other component for production of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS could be added in the future.
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