Indians Move To Get Control Of Nigerian Oil Refineries

The government-owned Indian Oil Corporation has moved to gain control of three of Nigeria's largest refineries, state-owned operations in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, the Vanguard daily newspaper reported this morning.

The move follows a series of attempts to encourage other refiners, including U.S.-based multinationals ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, to take over the sites, which are running at about 60 percent of capacity.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has demanded that the Port Harcourt refinery - a client of Chrome Oil Services, the company whose founder, Sir Emeka Offor, owns the controlling stake in ERHC - be completed by March 25, 2005.

IOC mounts diplomatic pressure to acquire Nigeria's refineries
By Hector Igbikiowubo
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The Indian Oil Corporation has commenced diplomatic moves to enable it to acquire controlling stake in three refineries of Nigeria, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. It will be recalled that the IOC had submitted Expression of Interest (EoI) for acquiring 51 percent stake in the NNPC owned refineries late last year.

A presidency official who pleaded anonymity disclosed that the IOC had been in touch with the ministry of petroleum resources and the presidency regarding the sale of controlling interests in the refineries, adding that pressure from the Indians was beginning to mount.

The presidency official explained that although pressure was also coming from the Chinese and other potential investors, the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration will ensure that controlling interests in the refineries are disposed off in a tidy and transparent manner.

He noted that given the growing need for crude oil and petroleum products in China and India, their desperation is understandable, adding, however, that potential investors in the refineries would not have to wait much longer than March this year.

The presidency official also pointed that the President has given matching orders to the NNPC and the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to ensure that the Port Harcourt Refining Company is privatised before the 25th of March. He recalled that government has spent over $700 million since 1999 on refurbishing the refineries and other downstream petroleum facilities which have output capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.

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Vanguard also gathered that the Federal Government had earlier tried to get the major oil exploration and production companies including Shell, Mobil, ChevronTexaco, Total and Agip to participate in the privatisation programme but this has not yielded any fruitful results.

But the Indians want Nigerian crude oil as feed-stock for refineries back home, in return for the refinery turn-around maintenance jobs.
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