Indian Oil Corporation Seeks Eni And KazMunaiGaz As Ceyhan Refinery Partners
The chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Sarthak Behuria, on 22 August said negotiations were under way to include Italy’s Eni and Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz as equity partners in a planned 300,000 b/d refinery at Ceyhan. IOC and Turkey’s Calik Enerji are involved in a 51:49 joint venture that has been licensed to build the refinery, estimated to cost $4.9bn. Mr Behuria said partners were needed because of the size of the investment. IOC and Calik are partners with Eni in the $1.5bn Samsun-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline project, which involves construction of a 550km pipeline with a 1mn b/d capacity (MEES, 30 April). The pipeline will bypass the Bosphorus straits and deliver Caspian crude for refining and export at Ceyhan. Two other joint ventures – Petrol Ofisi/OMV and Socar/Turcas – also have licenses to build refineries in Ceyhan (MEES, 23 July). Including KazMunaiGaz in the project would guarantee a supply of Kazakh crude.
