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NEws – MIDDLE East, aFRICa & asIa<br />
8<br />
Petronas sells thailand<br />
assets to susco<br />
Susco Plc, a local oil retailer, has acquired<br />
the assets of Malaysia-based Petronas Retail<br />
(Thailand) Co, which has 100 petrol<br />
stations in Thailand. Susco’s managing<br />
director Chairit Simaroj declined to reveal<br />
the value of the deal, but confirmed that<br />
the company is ready for the acquisition,<br />
with cash on hand and loans from banks.<br />
The transaction is expected to be finalised<br />
in November. The company believed the<br />
purchase will complement its business<br />
expansion plan as the 100 Petronas outlets<br />
are mostly in residential areas of greater<br />
Bangkok while Susco’s existing 144 stations<br />
are situated mainly on highways. Susco plans<br />
to allocate around 50 million baht a year<br />
to rebrand the Petronas stations to Susco,<br />
starting early next year. Petronas entered<br />
the Thai market in 2005 by acquiring assets<br />
from Kuwait oil, whose brand is Q8.<br />
Ghana new fuel<br />
storage facility<br />
The city of Tema is set to host a new fuel<br />
storage facility after Stanbic Bank Ghana<br />
and Fuel Trade limited agreed a $ 21 million<br />
deal to build fuel storage tanks to<br />
facilitate importation. The five-year loan<br />
agreement also includes a $ 75 million to<br />
allow Fuel Trade to import fuel products<br />
into the country. The 80 000-metric ton<br />
facility will allow Fuel Trade to take a leading<br />
position in the fuel storage market. it<br />
also brings the company into compliance<br />
with new regulations from the National<br />
Petroleum Authority (NPA), which has<br />
ordered that bulk distribution companies<br />
must maintain long term access to storage<br />
facilities or own their own.<br />
Investors interested<br />
in Nigeria<br />
South African investors are interested in<br />
acquiring stakes in elements of Nigeria’s<br />
petroleum industry, said the leader of a team<br />
of investors visiting the country to survey<br />
potential opportunities. Stephan Mcburger<br />
and his team are prepared to assist companies<br />
in the Nigeria with issues presented by new<br />
technologies and a lack of workers, which he<br />
says will allow them to work to their potential.<br />
Much of the investment will be made<br />
in upgrading the country’s aging pipelines.<br />
The Nigerian oil industry is set to become<br />
a more welcoming place for investors like<br />
Mcburger once the new Petroleum industry<br />
Bill is signed into law, said Peter Nmandu,<br />
head of corporate services at the Nigerian<br />
National Petroleum Corporation.<br />
Omanoil open fuel & convenience stores<br />
oman oil Marketing Company (omanoil) will<br />
open five new fuel stations and nine Ahlain<br />
convenience stores across the sultanate in<br />
2012. “our expansion strategy is in tandem<br />
with the country’s infrastructure development<br />
and population growth, offering a one-stop-<br />
LatEst NEws, EvENts, jOBs ONLINE – www.PEtROLPLaza.COM<br />
shopping experience and quality products<br />
which are underpinned by world-class service”,<br />
said Hussain bin Jama al ishaqi, omanoil’s<br />
general manager of retail. “We aim to maintain<br />
excellent and convenient re-fuelling at our<br />
fuel stations as loyal friends on the road to<br />
motorists and local communities.” He added,<br />
“investing in strategic locations across oman<br />
reinforces the nation’s long-term development<br />
ambitions, while closing the retail network gap<br />
allows omanoil to better serve its customers<br />
in all corners of the country.” omanoil now<br />
has 137 filling stations, 82 Ahlain convenience<br />
stores and 14 car wash facilities.<br />
australian police want pre-pay fuel system<br />
The head of Victoria’s police force has said that<br />
he plans to bring some of Melbourne’s top fuel<br />
service station operators to the table in a bid<br />
to introduce pre-pay petrol pumps in the city.<br />
Nearly 6 000 motorists drive off without paying<br />
for petrol every year in Melbourne, costing<br />
the operators hundreds of thousands of dollars<br />
and taking up invaluable hours of police time.<br />
Despite the benefits that a pre-pay system has<br />
to offer, some retailers in the city are against<br />
the plans, with 200 independent retailers<br />
operating under the Victorian Automobile<br />
Chamber of Commerce umbrella organisation<br />
among the most vocal. “our members have<br />
been told by their customers that pre-pay is<br />
inconvenient and that they, the customers, do<br />
not want it”, said David Purchase, Executive<br />
Director at the VACC.<br />
Assam refinery eyes outside markets<br />
in india the Assam Refinery is planning to<br />
explore the possibility of selling its products<br />
in nearby countries such as Bhutan and<br />
Myanmar. The refinery’s location in close<br />
proximity to countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan<br />
and Myanmar presents another opportunity<br />
of natural markets for its products. The<br />
company’s budget includes funds for a major<br />
expansion plan at the refinery and is also<br />
considering diversification into sectors such as<br />
power generation, pipelines, exploration and<br />
production. There are plans for expansion of<br />
refining capacity together with the option of<br />
sourcing and transporting crude oil through<br />
pipelines. The refinery processed its highestever<br />
quantity of crude oil, with a 25.6 percent<br />
increase in volume, and reported sales growth<br />
of 27.7 percent.<br />
aDNOC Distribution adopts Oracle Exadata Database<br />
ADNoC Distribution has announced the<br />
deployment of the oracle Exadata Database<br />
Machine X 2-2 to optimise performance and<br />
overall quality of service across the business.<br />
The company said that the move is part of its<br />
technology road map, and would help prepare<br />
for expansion in international markets. The<br />
oracle Exadata Database Machine X 2-2 offers<br />
a complete package of software, servers and<br />
storage that, makers say, offers the ability to<br />
run the largest and most important database<br />
applications up to ten times faster or more.<br />
According to ADNoC, deploying the system<br />
has complemented ADNoC Distribution’s<br />
existing solutions and has helped the company<br />
achieve extreme performance and scalability<br />
for all the subsidiary’s database applications<br />
including online Transaction Processing<br />
(olTP), and olAP, Data Warehousing (DW)<br />
and consolidation of mixed workloads.<br />
Sinopec sales increase in first 6 months<br />
Chinese state owned fuel giant Sinopec has<br />
said that total sales from its marketing and<br />
distribution segment increased in the first half<br />
of the year after it adjusted its strategies to fit<br />
the changing market in which it operates. The<br />
company said its sales to the end of June came<br />
in at an increase of 2.8 percent on the same<br />
time last year. Sinopec said in its statement<br />
that it expects demand for its products to<br />
increase in the second half of the year, after<br />
the Chinese government to passed a number<br />
of reform bills aimed at driving infrastructure<br />
and spending on projects. it said that once<br />
these measures are signed into law, the company<br />
would scale up its operations, but did<br />
not provide any detail on what that entailed.
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