The Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, has announced the completion of its modular refinery with plans to increase its capacity for use in the commercial sector.
According to Punch report, PTI, based in Effurun, Delta State, also reportedly teaches artisanal refiners the abilities necessary for processing crude oil.
Speaking in a press conference in Abuja, Adebowale Adimula, the Chief Executive of PTI, said:
“One of the areas that we have been looking at over the past few years is developing technologies in the modular refinery space. We are a training institution primarily, but when you look at the country today and the lack of technology among the artisanal refiners, one of the things we have done is to develop concepts.”
He added that the ministry aids in educating people so that their actions do not negatively impact the environment.
“We at the institute have built up our own. Now what is next is to scale it up, to find ways to make it commercial. But as an institute we have that already, we have our template, drawings, and all the fabricated parts and everything, so it is easier to now bring people in, and teach them the various components of what they will encounter in the field.”
Adimula added that the country now employs individuals with little to no refining knowledge. He claims they enter creeks, destroy pipes, and boil or fry oil. To enable them to make a real contribution to the economy, he continued, the ministry is doing things differently by providing them with the training and tools they need.
He said that the refinery will develop innovations in the modular refinery arena, even though it is smaller than the Dangote facility in Lekki, Lagos.
Adimula added: The facility we are working on is not to create a refinery that will now be like the Dangote refineries of this world, no. Our primary focus, which we are not losing sight of, is that we are a training institution and whatever we develop will help the advancement of technology in that space.
