Indorama Port

completed

The Indorama Corporation (“Indorama”) is an Indonesian based multinational company operating in 19 different countries and a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals and associated downstream products such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester fiber, filament, spun yarns and fabrics. In 2006 the Government of Nigeria privatized the Eleme Petrochemicals Company located in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State. At the time IFC provided an investment to Indorama to acquire a 75% equity stake in the operations which was renamed Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited (“Eleme” or the “company”); this loan was prepaid in 2012. The current company shareholding is: the Indorama Group 65%, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (“NNPC”) 10%, Rivers State Government 10%, Host Communities 7.5%, the Nigerian Federal Government 5%, and Employees 2.5%.In 2013 IFC provided Indorama with a $225 million A/B loan to support development of a new urea-based fertilizer plant within the confines of Eleme’s existing 360 hectare site located west of central Port Harcourt. Current operations on this site include an olefins plant, a polyethylene plant, polypropylene plant, two nitrogen plants, four natural gas turbines and three steam turbines. The fertilizer plant is to be commissioned in April 2016 and includes an ammonia plant, urea plant and urea granulation plant that will produce 4,000 tons of granulated urea per day. In addition, a jetty is being constructed in the nearby Onne port for the export of fertilizer; this will be commissioned at the same time as the fertilizer plant. A new gas pipeline was commissioned for the new fertilizer plant as of February 2016, and is ready for operations. As part of IFC’s investment in the fertilizer plant a detailed environmental and social (E&S) due diligence was undertaken of the plant, the jetty and gas pipeline; the latter two activities were included in the due diligence given they were considered associated facilities relative to the plant. The jetty is located on a plot of land 6.244 ha in extent and owned by the Nigerian Port Authority (“NPA”) who are also responsible for operations within the port. The land has been leased to Oil Industrial Service Limited (“OIS”) for a period of 25 years commencing November 2005, and the lease is renewable for a further 25 years. Eleme and OIS have formed a Joint Venture Company (JVC) with a shareholding ratio of 51% retained by Eleme, and 49% by OIS with Eleme providing the investment for construction of the jetty. The jetty operations will be managed by JVC and include a quay with a water front measuring 320 m comprised of two berthing sections. Berthing Section-1 measures 180 m and will be suitable for accommodating urea vessels with a length overall of up to 180 meters to serve Eleme. Berthing Section-2 measures 105 meters and will serve OIS; this will be suitable for vessels with an overall length of up to 105 meters and accommodate break bulk, pipes and containerized cargoes. In addition to the quays, there is terminal infrastructure including an enclosed urea storage facility to accommodate 45,000 metric tons of product, urea transfer facilities i.e., for urea to vessels, an enclosed area of break bulk cargo, a storage area for containers and pipes and vessel off/onloading equipment. Other facilities for operation of the jetty include a site office, generators, a control room, parking areas, a weighbridge and emergency response facilities. The transfer of urea from the fertilizer plant will be by road via an existing road network.Eleme appointed LES as the EPC contractor for the jetty who were established for this project and are a subsidiary of Lubrik Construction Company, a Nigerian company. Construction of the jetty is largely complete with the focus currently being on final equipment installation; further details on the approach to construction are provided in the sections that follow.