Challenges in Refinery Construction

First, uh,

during the setting up of the, uh, you know, refinery, when we thought

about building the refinery, first of all,

we really didn't have a clue of how huge this refinery is going to

turn out to be,

and I believe that is the reason why we went into, uh,

building the refinery. If we knew

what we are really going to get into, we wouldn't have started at all.

So-

Is that a fact? Definitely you wouldn't have done it?

No, really, it is a fact, you know, because, I mean, personally, I

tell you, if you give me that opportunity to do it again,

I don't think if I'm going to do it.

Because I think I developed all my gray hair- ...

within the last

-- within the last five years. I mean, it was really huge.

We were facing

one hurdle after the other. Um,

when we first started the idea, we started the idea a long time,

um, two thousand and thirteen,

which we sign agreement with the, you know, full of

bankers.

Some of the banks, yes, they came in, you know, gave us, uh, you know,

loan. We sign in September

two thousand and thirteen. We went to one location.

We had a problem with the governor there.

So it took us three and a half years to realize that, look,

you know, uh, we are

just wasting our time. We left there.

We went to another site. The site that we went there,

there was a also another issue with the community,

you know, political issue,

which, you know, sometimes is a bit difficult to sort out.

And we stayed there for another one year

plus. When we sorted out that, then now it came

about, uh, we checked the land. You know, seventy percent of

the land was a marshy land, so

we had to now go and get what you call swamp buggies- ...

to remove all the, uh, trees.

Uh, just after doing that, because at that time we were busy doing the

de- design.

And

what happened, you know, we're told that we need to raise the

entire site. This site is about two thousand,

uh, six hundred and eighty-five hectares, which is almost about

thirty-three, thirty-four million

square meters

of, uh, you know, of land. It's huge.

I mean, the fence around it alone is over thirty kilometers.

So we decided to do the sand filling, and that one we had to bring in four

of the biggest dredgers in the world.

Was that not a clue that it was gonna be tough?

Uh, well-

I mean, like, this is as tough as it's going to get.

I told you, if we knew-

'Cause then you did-- Yeah

... if we knew what we are getting into, we wouldn't have tried.

'Cause then you had to build ports, and this is the thing-

We had to do that-

Build ports

... sixty-five, uh, you know, sixty-five, uh, tons of, uh,

sand. And then they say, "Okay, we have to wait for one year." I say,

"Hey, wait a

minute, gentlemen. I don't have one year to wait." "Is there

any other

alternative?" So they gave us the alternative of what you call, uh,

you know, uh, compaction. So we had to bring in a Chinese,

uh, farm to do what you call dynamic

compaction if we don't want

to wait for the sand to settle. We went through that.

And, uh, you know, after that, then we realized that all

this equipment that we have bought,

which some of them are three thousand tons

of weight per piece, we have to build a special

port because all the ports in Nigeria, they are so

small to be able to handle the, uh, you

know, the equipment. So we had to build a port.

Uh, you know-

So now you're going deeper into it.

There's just-

Yeah. After-

Now you can't turn around

... yeah, after building the port down- ...

we realized that, look, hey, wait a minute.

You know, we, we also cannot remove them from the port

to the site. So we had to build a special road

that could carry

weight of up to three thousand tons.

We finished that, then we thought about, okay, fine, well, you know, the way that

we designed of getting the tankers to come and discharge the

crude into the this and that one won't work.

So we have to now run one twenty-five kilometers

of pipes through the sea.

Yeah.

And what you have, SPM, simple point mooring, put a

big capacity where in a day the crude can

discharge two million barrels a day, each one.

So we did that. And, uh, we finished

that, then we thought everything was fine.

Then-

Like then we, we're over the worst, right?

Yes, over the worst. But then we now did what you call soil

test.

And the soil test, it shows that we have the worst

soil ever.

Just keeps getting better.

Yes. And then we have to, uh, do what you call piling.

If you know, piling costs a lot of money.

Yes.

So we have to do two hundred and forty-nine thousand piles.

Wow.

That's almost quarter of a million piles.

I mean, we have a story building, uh, built in, uh,

Lagos.

The, it's about eighteen-story building, but we only, uh, we did

about, only about thirty-eight piles.

So that's what, you know, we, uh, we built.

And then we realized that in Nigeria

we didn't have the capacity for people to supply us with sand,

with gravel. Cement, yes, we produce cement, so that wasn't a

problem.

But with these things, we have to now go and build a

capacity to crush stones worth eight hundred

thousand tons per month, which now is equivalent to ten million

tons. And nobody had ten million tons.

Actually, we are the largest in the world in terms

of quarry.

That's incredible.

Incredible.

I mean, I think to, to, to your point