Indorama Denies Emission of Soot in Rivers
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
Indorama Nigeria, owners of Indorama Petrochemicals and Fertilizer Eleme, Rivers State, has denied the insinuation that its facility is producing soot, air pollution in the state.
This is as the company also revealed that it supplies fertilizer to over 32 million farmers annually in the country.
The Head of Corporate Communications, Indorama, Dr. Jossy Nkwocha, revealed this yesterday during a facility tour of its petrochemicals complex with journalists in Eleme Local Government Area of the state.
Nkwocha, who insisted that the company’s facilities did not emit soot, said Indorama operates a closed system that does not allow incomplete combustion.
He said the company was proactive in issues that may affect the environment and its production, hence the tour on the facilities with journalists.
Nkwocha said Indorama was being monitored by the Federal Ministry of Environment at the federal and state level; the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, and others, stressing that the agencies as a third party audit Indorama on a quarterly basis.
According to him, “We have shown you all our fertilizer and petrochemical operations, which are to show that we are an open book, and that Indorama operations do not emit any soot whatsoever.
“We have a closed system, and this closed system does not allow any strenuous gas to escape. And as they have explained to us in the control room, we buy this natural product from either Agip or TotalEnergies, and we don’t allow it to waste by flaring it. So you can see that Indorama does not emit soot or anything in any form.
“We are being proactive because people are making insinuation. Officially, nobody is accusing us of emitting soot but we have the responsibility to explain to the public to clear such insinuation.”
Nkwocha commended the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, in handling the issue of soot in the state.
He added: “Indorama knows we have a capable governor who is handling the soot matter so it is not our own responsibility to begin to cast aspersion on anybody. Our governor is handling it very ably-he is an action governor.”
Meanwhile, the firm stated that it has supplied fertilizer to over 32 million farmers in the country, adding that such has breached the importation of fertilizers that the nation earlier spent N7 billion on annually.
Nkwocha further disclosed that the firm produces 3,000,000 metric tons of fertilizers annually and supplied to millions of farmers.
He said the company has contributed hugely to the GDP of the country, adding that over 7,000 workers have been employed in the facility.
