NIGERIA - Phase Two.

Originally scheduled for completion in 1987, the 330,000 t/y ethylene complex under Phase Two came on stream in June 1995, together with a unit with the capacity to produce 90,000 t/y of propylene and 22,000 t/y of butene-1. The 250,000 t/y swing plant to produce HDPE and/or LLDPE came on stream in late 1995, along with an 80,000 t/y PP plant. The complex is at Eleme near Port Harcourt, the site of Nigeria's oldest oil refinery in Rivers State. It is operated by Eleme Petrochemicals Co.

Delays in completing the complex were largely due to heavy debts owed by the government to French and Japanese contractors working on the plant.

NNPC said in 1995 the complex will satisfy domestic demand as well as provide the state with $100m per annum in export revenues. In addition, Phase Two saved the country some $122m through import substitution. But now, income from the Eleme complex is a fraction of what was expected in the 1990s.

   Nigeria's Phase Two Petrochemical Plants

PRODUCT                            CAPACITY
Ethylene                           330,000 t/y
Propylene                           90,000 t/y
Butene                            -122,000 t/y
Polypropylene                       80,000 t/y
Polyethylenes (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE)  250,000 t/y

Delays in production by these plants in 1995 were also caused by damage to the NGL extraction facility at Port Harcourt from an explosion earlier in the year. Agip, operating the extraction plant, resumed normal operations in late 1995. The complex requires about 17,000 b/d of NGL. But unrest in the area in recent months has also affected the operations of these plants.

Du Pont Canada handled the engineering work and supervised the construction of the LLDPE/HDPE units, under a contract signed in October 1988. Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP) provided the process licence for the butene-1 plant. (Butene-1 is the base for LLDPE). Preliminary designs were done by Spie Batignolles of France, Technimont of Italy, and Chiyoda and Kobe Steel of Japan. M.W. Kellogg of the US was also involved as a contractor.

Initially, Phase Two was criticised as being economically unviable because projections of domestic consumption levels indicated that only 60% of the planned output would be absorbed while export prospects would be limited. However, in August 1987, a World Bank financed study conducted by the Standford Research Institute of California recommended the development of Phase Two as planned, with emphasis on ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene.