EMEA News
Indian Oil Expanding in Mauritius
Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) subsidiary IndianOil (Mauritius) plans to expand its operations in an effort to make the island nation a bigger player in the oil industry, news site CNBCA Africa reports.
"We want to make Mauritius a petroleum hub, and produce product tankers of a 140 TMT [and] utilise them for re-exporting to nearby areas which require the services," said IndianOil (Mauritius) CEO Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra.
"We have downstream marketing activities, [the expansion] is in sync with what is happening in the Mauritian market."
The government of the country, located in the Indian Ocean off Africa's southeast coast, has crafted policies to open its economy to global markets, and it is party to a number of international trade agreements.
"We are looking to expand in Africa," Mohapatra said.
"These include retail, consumer, aviation, marine and bunkering of all vessels of fuel coming into Mauritius, and [oil] well lubricants."
He added that the region needs an oil refinery with at least six million metric tonnes of capacity, which the company plans to look at in the future.
A budget plan released by a Mauritius official in February called for the nation to triple its bunker volumes.
