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Our Bureau

Plans 15-mt refinery in Turkey at $6 b

New Delhi March 27 Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) has chalked out ambitious plans for expanding business in Turkey, Africa, West Asia and Commonwealth of Independent States.

The company has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 43,000 crore over the next five years, for undertaking various projects including plans to set up a 15-million-tonne refinery at an estimated cost of $6 billion at Ceyhan in Turkey.

"We plan to acquire 51 per cent stake in the refinery at Ceyhan. It will export petroleum products to Europe and the US, apart from meeting the domestic requirement of Turkey," said IOC's Director (planning and business development), Mr B.M. Bansal. The refinery is expected to be completed by 2012. The refinery will also have Calik Energi of Turkey as a partner.

Majority stake

The state-run company would also bid for majority stake in Petkim Petrokimya Holdings AS of Turkey, he said.. "IOC will bid for the 53-54 per cent stake on offer for the petrochemical enterprise. We have filed expression of interest," he added. Turkey invited bids for a majority stake in chemicals maker Petkim worth at least $500 million on March 16.

"We want to integrate the refinery with Petkim,'' he said. Apart from this, IOC is acquiring 12.5 per cent stake in the $2-billion Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline.

Currently, ENI, the Italian petroleum major, IOC and Calik Energi are partners in the projects and more players are expected to join hands for the project that extends from the Black Sea to Mediterranean Sea.

Speaking to newspersons, Mr Bansal said, "IOC hopes to be one of the operators of the pipeline as it has a significant experience in this segment. A final decision on the operator of the pipeline is likely to be taken in the next three months." A team to conduct due diligence on the pipeline project will be visiting Turkey soon.

The company was also considering exploration and production projects in Russia along with downstream opportunities in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The downstream projects in these two countries are also linked to E&P projects, he added. As regards reports that IOC has lost acquisition of Maurel & Prom assets in Congo, he said, Burren had withdrawn its offer to give IOC a stake.

Retail plans

On the petroleum products retailing plans of the company, Mr Bansal said, "We are looking at countries which do not have subsidy mechanism." The company is looking at Turkey and African countries for business opportunities in retailing.

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