A Russian firm, Safinet Group, has expressed interest in establishing a 7,000-barrels-per-day-capacity refinery in Calabar with a plan to increase its capacity to 65,000bpd in the near future, Punchng report.
The Chairman, Safinet, Mr. Arsen Mudonov, disclosed this during a meeting with the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, in Calabar, recently.
Mudonov was quoted in a statement to have said that the group decided to come to Cross River to establish the refinery because of the peace and tranquility in the state and the hospitable nature of the people.
He said the company, which is into construction and oil and gas, had been expanding its operations into different parts of the world, including Africa, in the last five years.
The State Governor, Ayade, was quoted as saying that his administration had turned the state into an investors’ haven by creating a conducive atmosphere for investment.
He reiterated that the peaceful and hospitable nature of the state and its citizens were recently attested to by the outgoing United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Erntwhistle, who picked the state as his most favourite place in Nigeria.
Ayade said, “If you are putting a refinery and your shipping of the crude is by barges, then the refinery being located by the waterside becomes easy. Even if you want a solid land location, we also have sold earth where you can have access to bring in your crude by barges and then have pipelines to take the crude to your refinery.”