The Hindu Business Line : IndianOil’s refining foray into Turkey delayed

IndianOil’s proposed refining foray into Turkey is still hanging fire. More than three months after being awarded the provisional licence, IOC-Calik Holding joint venture is yet to make any headway in accommodating all interested parties in one consortium and ensuring a controlling stake in the $4.9-billion project as well.

According to sources, Calik Holding — the Turkish partner of IOC — which is spearheading discussions on behalf of the venture is yet to break ice with the state oil company of Azerbaijan SOCAR to join the consortium at terms favourable to the IOC-Calik venture.

SOCAR (in joint venture with Turcas of Turkey) is one of the competitors of IOC-Calik in building the 15 million tonne refinery at Ceyhan, Turkey.

The problem has been aggravated as Turkish authorities have granted provisional licences to three consortia, led by IOC-Calik, SOCAR-Turcas and Petrol Ofisi-OMV, for setting up the refinery.

Petrol Ofisi is one of the largest fuel retailers in Turkey and OMV is from Australia.

Only one refinery

Having granted the provisional licences to the consortia in December, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey has made it clear that they would allow only one refinery to be set up at Ceyhan to process the crude transported through the Trans Anatolian pipeline project from the Turkish Northern Black Sea city Samsun to Ceyhan.

The uncertainty over the final award for the refinery made it imperative for IOC-Calik to try to rope in all interested parties under one consortium. While the proposed venture made progress in this regard with KazMunayGas of Kazakhstan and ENI, doubts still exist over the participation of SOCAR.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best,” an IOC official said.

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