Dangote, Otedola Take Posession of P/Harcourt, Kaduna Refineries

Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC) and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC), the nation’s two ailing refineries were yesterday formally handed over by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to Bluestar Oil Services Company Limited Consortium, which bought them through the privatization sale of the Federal Government.

Bluestar Oil Services Limited Consortium, which is a Nigerian consortium comprising Dangote Group, Zenon Oil, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) and River State government had paid $561 million (N71.808 billion) for 51 per cent of Federal Government’s equity stake in the ailing crude oil refinery company having emerged the preferred bidder/core investor in PHRC at the financial bid opening in Abuja.
Also, at the weekend, the Consortium paid $160 million (N20.48 billion) for 51 per cent of Federal Government’s stake in KRPC, which was an increase of $58 million over the $102 million offered by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the only bidder as at the time of opening of the financial bid about two weeks.

It could be recalled that CNPC offered $102 million for KRPC but the amount, which was considered to be below the reserve price could not scale the last hurdle of ratification by the National Council on Privatization (NCP), which rejected the company’s bid. The refinery was however finally sold to Bluestar Oil Services at the weekend