The Federal Ministry of Environment and its Rivers State counterpart have inspected the site of the phase I proposed Etche Economic Processing Complex (EEPC) at Okomoko in the Etche Local Government Area.
Information made available to The Tide, revealed that, the Etche Economic Processing Complex (EEPC) a private sector driven enterprise, will house an oil and gas plants in the downstream sector comprising of natural gas and IPG processing plants.
Also to be housed at the complex are: modular refinery, combined cycle 20-30 mw gas plant and supporting oil products depots as well as filling stations/distribution centres.
The controller, federal Ministry of Environment Port Harcourt, Mr. Raymond Enunwaoye told The Tide during the visit, that the verification was just one important aspect towards the production of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) document for the project.
Mr. Enunwaonye also said that the exercise was to ensure that, the project has little negative impacts on both the environment and the people.
“Our visit was to ensure that the environment and the people do not suffer “adding that all issues that will impact negatively as far as the project is concerned will be sorted out.
He said that, the team is satisfied with the location.
According to him, as regulators their job is to ensure minimal negative impacts of the project on the environment.
“This is a process, it is not right to say which impact is negative or not. Every project has both positive and negative impacts” but the negative impact will be minimised” he said.
The controller, however, described the visit as a step-in the right direction, assuring that in the technical review session the impacted communities will be openly involved.