The management of Indorama Petrochemicals Company Limited has expressed full support to Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike’s fight against illegal refineries and their operators in the state.
Head, Corporate Communications, Dr Jossy Nkwocha who made the company’s position known to newsmen during a guided facility tour of its state-of-the-art petrochemicals and fertiliser plants in Eleme, near Port Harcourt, said that Indorama management has confidence in the capacity and ability of the governor to provide quality leadership that addresses the environmental challenges facing the people and those living and doing business in the state.
According to Nkwocha, “Indorama knows that we have a capable governor who is handling the soot matter. So it is not our responsibility to cast aspersions on anybody. Our governor is handling it very ably, and we support him.”
He said that the tour was to avail journalists the opportunity to understand the workings of the company’s plants so they can better communicate and educate the populace while also correcting insinuations in some misinformed quarters that Indorama operations allegedly emit soot in the state.
While stressing that complying with the company’s zero-tolerance for carbon emission policy was top priority of management, direct and indirect staff, he said the company has also installed state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that every NGL that attempts to escape during combustion is captured and recycled for conversion and processing into productive uses.
Nkwocha explained that “Indorama is an open book and has nothing to hide. We operate a closed manufacturing system which utilises every natural gas feedstock for optimum efficiency and productivity, without allowing any hydrocarbon to escape into the air. Our operations do not allow any extraneous gas to waste.
“Measuring gas liquids to achieve complete combustion at the stacks is in our DNA. Once hydrocarbons are completely combusted, what you have is excess oxygen. But once you have incomplete combustion, what you find is that the remaining hydrocarbons typically escape in particulates and are emitted as soot. In Indorama, nobody allows any drop of NGL to waste because we spend money to buy it”.
He noted that Indorama buys natural gas from either Nigerian Agip Oil Company or TotalEnergies at highly competitive prices, adding that as a profit-driven business, it strives to maximise profitability by adding value to every shareholder’s stake to justify huge investments in the company.
The Indorama image-maker said that the company’s petrochemicals and fertiliser plants have surpassed international and local regulatory requirements for the industry, saying that while global best practices permit minimum 2percent oxygen level, Indorama plants operate at 4percent, thereby allowing more oxygen during hydrocarbons cracking, conversion and processing in the Olefins plant, boilers, furnaces and vaporizers to extract desired nitrogen dioxide needed to produce high quality polymer s – polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) for various range of products, just as both Urea and Ammonia plants run with clean energy technologies to produce best quality fertilisers.
He also noted that the two plants have been certified and regularly reviewed by all relevant international and Nigerian regulatory agencies, such as International Standard Organisation (ISO), Bureau VERITAS, British Safety Council, Japan’s SOW and TOYO, United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA), International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), European Union’s registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH), as well as Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), National Environmental Standards and Regulatory Enforcement Agency (NESREA), federal and state ministries of environment.
“Our plants are regularly audited and maintained to meet best quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) measures, and have set quality, environmental, and occupational health and safety management systems (ISO 90001, 14000 of 2015, and 45000 of 2018) certifications, 5-Star Safety and SOW of Honour awards, SON’s Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP), SOW and TOYO certifications, and Nigeria Export Promotion Council’s Presidential Medal of Honour for placing the country on the global petrochemicals map as exporter of polymer rasins to various countries.
Nkwocha said that apart from the regular audit of the plants to ensure compliance with global best practices, the company also carries out regular ambient air quality monitoring at eight strategic locations within the complex and host communities to guarantee conformity to approved standards, just as third party regulators further conduct quarterly emission monitoring.
On the positive impact of the company to Nigerian economic development, Nkwocha said that petrochemicals plants provide raw materials for over 600 firms across the country, and enable over 50,000 jobs along the production value chain, while the fertilizer plants produce and supply high quality Urea to various blending plants in Nigeria, employing thousands of people.
He also said that Indorama produces three million metric tonnes of fertiliser per annum, supplies fertiliser to more than 32million farmers to ensure food sufficiency and security, controls 95percent of in-country fertiliser market, and employs about 7,000 direct and indirect staff daily.
On returns on investment, he said that the company regularly pays its taxes to governments as well as its dividends to the federal and state governments, host communities and staff, while also meeting its corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets.
