Anambra-owned Orient Petroleum Resources Plc has concluded plans to increase its crude oil production to 3,000 barrels per day before September this year. The company has also hatched a plan with an indigenous company known as Nails & Stanley Limited to establish a gas plant in Umueje in Ayamelum Local Government Area of the state.

Managing Director of the company, Engr. Sunny Okoye, disclosed this on Saturday when he led the Board of Directors on a courtesy visit to Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, in the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia. He revealed that Orient has revved up activities in two new oil wells in its Aguleri oilfields that would shore up the company’s production capacity to 3,000bpd before September.

Orient, according to Engr. Okoye, is not only working assiduously on boosting the production capacity of its oil wells but is also developing the vast gas resources in the state. “We are dealing with gas development on two fronts. The first one is the gas production we have right now, side by side with oil. We are looking at how to transform it to an income earning resource,” he explained.

Engr. Okoye noted that it was the drive to turn its gas resources into an income earner that informed the partnership it recently struck with Nails & Stanley in order to produce Compressed Natural Gas (CPG) that is used for industrial power as well as powering automobiles and a sundry other activities.

“We are engaging Nails & Stanley for that. They are on track to install their compressor cans very soon and as soon as we are ready to flag their operations off in the state. We are going to develop the ANU Gas Field. We have a well which we are going to use to produce sufficient gas for increased power production in Anambra State. That’s the second plank of our gas development plan,” he stated.

Engr. Okoye disclosed that Nails & Stanley is a wholly owned indigenous company operated by some illustrious Anambra indigenes who are eager to lend a weighty hand to on-going efforts to build a prosperous Anambra State.

In his response, Governor Obiano thanked the Orient Petroleum Board for the company’s giant strides and urged it to work harder to further grow it.

Other Orient Petroleum directors at the meeting included former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme; former Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Egboga; former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; and industrialist, Chief Cletus Ibeto.

•Adapted from ifeadinmesi.com. Photo shows, L-R; Mrs Ngozi Okoye, SSA Oil & Gas, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President, Dr. Emmanuel Egboga, former Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Chief Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary General and industrialist, Chief Cletus Ibeto, during a courtesy call by the Board of Orient Petroleum on the governor . . . on Saturday at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia.