By Adewale Sanyaolu
GUIDELINES for the establishment of hydrocarbon processing plants (petroleum refinery and petrochemicals plants) in Nigeria
1.2 Application
Applications for approval to establish a refinery or any other hydrocarbon processing plant shall be made in the manner described in section 1.3 below and in the form schedule in Appendix 1.
1.3 Approval process for the design, construction, commissioning and operation of a process plant
The approval process is designed to ensure that applicant for approval and permit to establish a Petroleum Refinery (or a process plant), understands the industry, the technical and economic implications of the project, the sociological and environmental impact of the plant, and maintenance provisions required to protect the health of the operating staff and safety of plant. It is designed to prevent avoidable waste of resources by ensuring at each stage that the applicant understands the statutory requirements of each phase of the project.
Consequently, the approval shall be given in three sequential stages: License to Establish (LTE), Approval to Construct (ATC) and License to Operate (LTO) respectively.
Note that requirement in sections “2.1.1 item IV, 3.4 item 2(iV), 6.3, Appendix I post-script item (iii)” regarding payment of “refundable commitment deposit of $1 million per 10,000 BPSD capacity” of this guideline are no longer applicable effective 2009.
Section II
2.1. License to Establish
This approval stage is to confirm general feasibility of the proposed project, market plan, products specifications, site selection, proposed crude oil (or feedstock) supply plan and product evacuation plan, preliminary safety and environmental impact statement, and organizational plans. The following submissions shall be made to the Department of Petroleum Resources to facilitate the corresponding milestone approvals as itemized in sections 2.1.1 to 2.1.4:
2.1.1. Application and Statutory Payments for all licenses and approvals
- i) Submission of application for licenses to establish a private refinery as stipulated in Appendix l
- ii) Payment of statutory application fee of fifty thousand US dollars only (US $50,000) for LTE,
Plant Relocations and ATC Revalidation or one hundred thousand dollars only (US $100,000) for license to operate (LTO) in bank draft in favour of Federal Government of Nigeria ‘DPR Fees Accounts’ and
iii) Payment of N500,000 Service charge in bank draft in favour of the ‘Department of Petroleum Resources’
- iv) Payment of refundable deposit of One million dollars only (US $1,000,000) for every 10,000 bpsd refinery capacity for LTE, Plant Relocations and ATC Revalidation.
Refund is subject to adherence to agreed project execution schedule within the first eighteen months and achievement of 70% front end engineering design (FEED) before expiration of the license otherwise the sum deposited is forfeited to the Federal Government.
To be continued
- Source: DPR