Tema, July 11, GNA -- The management of Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDC), an international oil managing company operating in Ghana has applied for an operational licence to design, fabricate and construct a new 180,000 barrels per day (180kbpd) export refinery in Ghana.

The project is to augment the country's oil and gas support infrastructure to refine oil discovered in Ghana. Mr John Holland, President of OGDC briefing the press in Tema on the project said the company had signed a 100 per cent funding package of two billion dollars with a leading United States Investment and Merchant Banking Organization. He said discussions were on-going between the management and Government to identify the most strategic locations for the project which included an offshore deepwater rig repair and offshore support facility.

Mr Holland said the project to construct a mini refinery sought to maximize its economic and social effects while minimizing the environmental effects associated with the operations of a refinery. He explained that the refinery which had been designed to be customized to suit particular applications was ideally suited to provide fuel supply in any climatically harsh region in the world. Mr Holland said a mini refinery did not have the economy of scale of a traditional large scale refinery where the marginal cost of processing a barrel of crude oil was very low. He explained that such refineries were suitable in remote regions where local crude oils were available and the prices of refined fuels were high due to transportation costs.

Mr Holland said the project would generate over 2,400 jobs for the construction of the refinery in Ghana and about 380 for the fabricating and constructing of four new drilling swamp barges for use on a charter basis in the West African and South Asian oil and gas market. He said in addition to the oil find, the management selected Ghana as its hub for operations in West Africa due to the country's excellent reputation with the World Bank, the improvement of the banking system and provision of a safe environment. 11 July 08