The management of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has issued an operational licence to Edo Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited, Ologbo, Edo state.

During a ceremony on Tuesday, Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer (CEO) of NMDPRA, handed the certificate to AIPCC Energy Limited, the parent company of Edo refinery.

Ahmed handed over the operational licence to Segun Okeni, the refinery’s head of technical operations.

Speaking during the handover, Farouk commended the company for achieving the feat and enjoined the firm to do more.

Responding on behalf of AIPCC Energy, Okeni said the company would continue to make contributions to the petroleum refinery and gas processing subsector.

He said AIPCC is developing three other projects and one of such would be completed in the next year.

Okeni said the operational licence is the final stage of approval from the regulatory authority, and this implies that the plant can now fully operate as a refinery.

“It starts from licence to establish, licence to construct, approval to introduce hydrocarbon, pre-commissioning and commissioning, operate the refinery for some time to ensure it can do so and finally the licence to operate LTO,” he said.

Okeni said the refinery is finalising plans with a domestic oil company to access crude oil for optimal production capacity.