Beirut (APD) -Morocco's oil refinery Societe Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage (SAMIR) signed on Saturday in Paris a deal with a consortium of Moroccan and international banks for a $605 million loan, the Moroccan news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) reported Monday.
SAMIR aims to finance the refurbishing of the Mohammedia refinery located 70 kilometers to the southwest of Rabat, a SAMIR statement said.
Moroccan banks will provide 40% of the loan. These banks are Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE), Attijariwaffa Bank and Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP).
The remaining 60% will be financed by the African Development Bank, the Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour la Cooperation (PROPARCO), BNP Paribas and Barclays Capital.
The loan represents 65% of the overall cost of SAMIR's modernization project; the remaining 35% will be furnished by the company's own resources, SAMIR said.
The loan is repayable over 13 years with an initial 3-year interest-free grace period.
SAMIR has embarked on its overhaul project in September 2005. The new facilities would be operational by the end of 2008.
SAMIR modernization "is expected to have a positive impact on the macroeconomic situation and the trade balance," said MAP.
"It would also create about 120 direct jobs and some 6 million man hours of indirect jobs during the construction phase," MAP stated.
Established in 1959, SAMIR is the only oil refinery in Morocco.
It imported 6 million tons of oil in 2004 and its imports of crude oil totaled $1.7 billion, according to MAP. [TS]
By Shikrallah Nakhoul, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2005
