Eleme Petrochemical targets 4.4bn dollars investment by 2019

ABUJA – The Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Ltd. (IEPL),said that it would invest 4.4 billion dollars in the company by 2019 to become the largest petrochemical company in Africa.

This is contained in a statement by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, signed by its Head of Public Communications, Chigbo Anichebe, on Monday in Abuja.

The statement said Mr Manish Mundra, the Managing Director of the company, announced this while addressing  members of the Senate Committee on Privatisation, led by its Chairman, Sen. Olugbenga Obadara, who visited the company.

It said the company had so far injected 575 million dollars since its privatisation and paid N33.9 billion as dividend to the Federal Government and Rivers State Government since its acquisition in 2006.

Giving the breakdown of the dividend, the statement said the company had paid N25.2 billion to the Bureau of Public Enterprises and NNPC while 8.71 billion was paid to Rivers Government.

It also said that N15.61 billion had been paid as taxes to both the federal and state governments which included value added tax, customs duty, withholding taxes and Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

It said that the organisation had increased its production capacity to four per cent pre-privatisation to 77 per cent as well as planning to increase its production to 325,000 tonns per annum in 2014.

The statement explained that as part of efforts to diversify, the company would embark on the construction of mega-sized fertiliser project comprising 1.4 million MTPA nitrogenous fertiliser, a gas pipeline and jetty projects targeted to be completed in 2015.

“The fertiliser plant will be located within the confines of the existing site, measuring 361 hectares and will occupy approximately 38 hectares.

“The main project components involve 2,300 MTPD ammonia plant; 4,000 MTPD urea plant; 4,000 MTPD urea granulation plant, with associated off sites and utilities.’’

The statement reported the managing director as saying that the company had begun the importation of fertiliser branded in the name Indorama, now making steady entry into the market in the country.

It appealed to the Federal Government for tax exemption and suggested that the tax regime should be based on the quantum of investment made by a company operating in the country.

At Notore Chemical Industries Ltd., Onne, the Head of Projects, Mr Bode Agagu, said that the company would increase its production from 500,000 tonns to 750,000 per annum.

He said the company would build a new plant, in partnership with a Danish firm, adding that it had successfully carried out a Turn Around Maintenance and increased the production by 30 per cent.

Agagu said that the company was able to access 2,000,000 farmers directly in 2013 in 2,500 communities in 30 states in the country.

He appealed to the Federal Government to put in place safe guards to check gas pipeline vandalism as it was critical to its operations.

He further appealed to the government to construct a rail line to link the company to the ports, to ease the haulage of its products.

Obadara said that the committee had embarked on the oversight visit to get information on the successes and challenges of the privatised companies.

The chairman said that they had also embarked on the visit to assess their compliance with the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) and the Post Acquisition Plan (PAP) they had signed with government. (NAN)