By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
Aradel, a fully integrated Nigerian energy company, has said it is targeting 16,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production by the end of the year in December 2023.
Temitayo Ogunbanjo, General Manager of Aradel Refinery, disclosed this during his presentation at the just concluded Oil Trading and Logistics (OTL) Africa Downstream Energy Week 2023 conference held in Lagos from 23rd – 26th October, 2023.
In his words, Ogunbanwo stated that Aradel has made remarkable progress by increasing its crudeoil production from 1,000 barrels per day in 2010 to 11,000 bpd in 2020 with the addition of two trains of 5,000 barrels per day each capacity.
However, he revealed that the Aradel refinery is very close to producing 16,000 barrels per day of crude oil production this year, and would continue to grow its production capacity going forward.
According to him, the company has set another target to add additional oil production between 3,000 – 4,000 barrels per day within the next 5 years.
He said, “We desire to produce crude and gas in our downstream operations as we have a gas plant of about 100 million standard cubic feet per day production capacity together with refining.
“We are a fully integrated company with marginal field and modular refiners committed to producing petroleum products sustainably and environmentally. Of all the modular refiners, we are the largest.
“With the modular refinery that we have, we are looking at producing gasoline from the plant, which will be ready next year.
“We are working on additional trains to be able to produce Premium Motor Spirit (petrol). This is scheduled for completion and start by mid-2024.”
Aradel is a fully integrated energy Group, with interests in multiple oil and gas assets, and its business spans from the upstream, midstream, and downstream value chain of the oil and gas industry.
Established 31 years ago, the company was operating as Niger Delta Exploration & Production PLC before it was rebranded as Aradel Holdings Plc to better reflect its long-term strategy of becoming Africa’s leading organization in the delivery of sustainable energy solutions that support economic growth. The unveiling of the new brand identity took place on Friday, 4th August 2023, at an exclusive grand event in Lagos.
The company emerged as the first indigenous company to have successfully negotiated and acquired an oil-operating mining lease which is known today as a marginal field.