Zambia: Essar Shows Interest in Indeni Petroleum
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Monday, 18 January 2010 |
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Essar is in negotiations to acquire a majority stake in Zambia’s state-owned Indeni Petroleum Refinery.
Essar planned to enter the fuel retailing business in the country
and supply petroleum products to countries in the vicinity by acquiring
the refinery. The countries for regional supply
include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia and East
Angola. Essar also sees other supply opportunities. Essar plans
to take petroleum products instead of LPG to Mpulungu harbour in north
Zambia, which is located on lake Tanganyika, and then supply it to
countries such as Libya, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and some East African
countries by ship as the lake connects all these countries.
Essar Group has a presence in Africa’s refining sector with its Mombasa
refinery acquisition in Kenya. The group has a 14 metric tonnes per
annum refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat which it plans to expand to 34
tonnes per annum. Indian oil companies see Africa as a natural
development platform for the future.
The firm that gets the refinery will have to invest around US $100
million for refurbishing and augmenting refining capacity as its
current configuration allows separation of only diesel and LPG.
The Zambian government is expected to take a decision on the stake sale
befoe the end of March.
PetrolWorld 150110
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