Eruani Azibapu’s dream mega project on the last lap

With **Funsho Arogundade **

(08111813063) [email protected]

For billionaire businessman, Eruani Godbless Azibapu, switching from medicine to entrepreneurship could be said to be seamless. Right from 1999 when he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State to his sojourn in the United States for specialty training, and later becoming a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and later Commissioner for Health in Bayelsa State, Azibapu’s gaze was set on infrastructure.

The young man wasted no time to dump medicine and public service when the opportunity beckons as he identified the major obstacle to infrastructural development in his Niger Delta terrain and ventured into the private business of selling sand. Today, that single move has birthed Azikel Group, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate headquartered in Bayelsa with interests in sand dredging, aviation, agriculture and energy.

Azibapu had plans for power generation but fate switched it to a refinery. He had acquired a vast land to build a power generation plant only to lose the licence he had bid for. But in 2015, late President Muhammadu Buhari launched the Modular Refineries Development Initiative, and Azibapu keyed in. He applied for the private refinery licence and got a nod for a 12,000 barrel per stream day (BPSD) hydro-skimming refinery. With that, the scion of the Obanema Royal family of Emadike Kingdom in Bayelsa State nursed a vision to establish the refinery in his own state with the potential to make his people major players in the oil industry and not be playing second fiddle in the industry when the main resources are found on their soil.

Azibapu sustained that vision when in February 2018, he had the official groundbreaking ceremony of the Azikel Refinery in Obunagha, Yenagoa Local Government Area of the State which was attended by many prominent personalities including former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Eight years down the line, the former President is back early this week for the erection of the ‘Crude Distillation Unit’ to signal the final phase of the ongoing construction of the refinery. Obasanjo did not only perform the groundbreaking, he was said to have mobilised potential financial partners and other support towards the completion of the full-slate hydro-skimming refinery, which has been designed to usher in a new era of industrialisation in the state.

The $1 billion refinery —already at finishing stage— when in full operation will be delivering 25,000 barrels per day with focus on petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas at Euro V grade. Around 700 engineers and other personnel are working on the completion phase, most of them young Bayelsans and Nigerian engineers alongside expatriate specialists. Azibapu expects to employ more than 3,000 people once the refinery is running, and says the project has already generated over 80,000 indirect jobs.

Azibapu’s story is inspiring: using the initial revenue made selling sand, he bought his first jet — a Hawker 800XP — in 2012 for about $7 million. Initially for his comfort but later registered Azikel Air, as a private jet charter company, after many friends began to seek the use of his aircraft. He later added helicopters and more private jets. Today, the billionaire magnate has three helicopters and three private jets (short and ultra-long ranges). Azibapu also enjoys flying for fun, having obtained a US pilot licence.

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