Uche Cecil Izuora
Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited (IEPL) says it will continue to prioritize
sustainability, as it plans to expand its petrochemical and fertiliser plants with a $3 billion investment to become Africa’s largest petrochemical and fertiliser hub.
The achieve this the firm is urging the government as well as oil and gas stakeholders to tackle the sector’s innovation and downstream gaps to unlock its vast economic potential.
The growth plan, according to the company would be executed within the next five years.
Managing Director, IEPL, Manish Mundra made the disclosure in his keynote address at the 7th Mid/Downstream Oil and Gas Conference organised by the Centre For Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Engineering (CGRP), University of Port Harcourt in conjunction with the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE), and themed “Repositioning Nigeria’s Petrochemicals Sector for Industrial Growth, Innovations, and Sustainable Development”, in PortHarcourt.
Represented by the Head, Fertiliser Manufacture, Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals Limited, Upendra Singh, Mundra noted that the country has the capacity to step up innovations to fill the gap in the oil and gas sector as she holds Africa’s largest gas reserve and second-largest oil reserve.
While noting that the country’s refining capacity is expanding rapidly, Mundra, however said the nation still imports the bulk of its plastic, fertilizers, specialty chemicals among others adding that Nigeria has what he described as “the field sack advantage, which is underused”.
He said repositioning the sector means converting hydrocarbon endowments into diversified high-value industrial output.
“Nigeria again has the resource, large resource base for oil and gas, which is exported as LNG or converted into polymers, fertilizers, and downstream products. Past 5 years have changed the arithmetic of the choice.
“For this, we need to have the policy reform, like PIA 2021 and subsidy deregulation, which are resetting the investment signals across the value chain as new downstream landscape, large-scale refining and petrochemical capacities are coming up, pushing Nigeria from import dependence toward the next export state status, ” he said.
Mundra said that increasing population growth, agriculture, construction, and packaging keep lifting African demand for polymers and fertilizers, including the Middle East crisis, urging Nigeria to capitalise on it.
According to him, “We need to capitalize this. Middle East crisis and logistic challenges will make Africa more attractive for the West. We have the highest massive gas stock in Africa, more than 206 TCF, which can be converted into orifins, poli, ammonia, urea, and intermediate integrated—integrated complexes. It can further be converted into resins and packaging pipes, textiles, for domestic consumption or exported to West and Central Africa,”.