India's Essar to invest $ 400 mm in Kenyan refinery
India's Essar Group said it will invest $ 400 mm in upgrading the refinery it had bought in Kenya.
"The Mombasa refinery is currently operating at 1.6 mm tpy against a capacity of 3.7 mm tons," Essar Petroleum (East
Africa) CEO Alok Mathur said. "We expect to operate at full capacity in two to three years."
Essa, had in July completed acquisition of a 50 % stake in Kenya's only oil refinery at Mombasa, almost 19 months
after it entered into an agreement with Shell Petroleum, Chevron Global Energy and BP Africa for an undisclosed
amount, Mathur said.
Essar will build a captive power plant at the refinery to take care of the disruption in power supplies, he said. The
Kenyan government holds the remaining 50 % share in the refinery operated by Kenya Petroleum Refineries.
The acquisition gives Essar direct access to market its petroleum products both from the Kenya refinery as well as
from its Indian refinery in coastal Gujarat.
Essar Oil currently operates a 14-mm tons refinery in Gujarat, and plans to expand it to 34 mm tons by December 2011.
