Dubai Oil marketer enters race for regional petroleum supply

A Dubai-based oil trader has found a foothold in Africa’s oil marketing space with the acquisition of 40 per cent stake in Hass Petroleum Group.

Oman Trading Company (OTC), which has been making inroads in the US and Africa market, said yesterday the acquisition would give it strategic access to expand in eastern and central Africa as well as in the Horn of Africa. Hass Petroleum Group, headquartered in Nairobi, has subsidiaries across Uganda, North Eastern, DRC and South Sudan.

The firm has depots at the port of Berbera, Mogadishu (both along the Somali coastal line), Mombasa and Dar es Salaam where they have a terminal with an installed capacity of 25 million litres. In Kenya the marketer has petroleum product outlets in Nairobi, Kisumu, Narok, Kericho, Eldoret, Mumias, Rongo, Kapsabet and Mombasa.

Unique business

“We are delighted to move onto the next phase of growth for OTC, agreeing our first major investment into Africa with Hass. Hass is a unique business with substantial scale and growth potential where we have enjoyed a long standing relationship. Most importantly, we share a common understanding and vision of the African energy market,” said OTC Chief Executive Talal Hamid Al-Awfi in a statement. The Dubai Oil marketer joins France’s Total, which is in the process of consolidating the East African assets it bought from Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation’s (GAPCO). Total acquired principal assets, two logistics terminals, in Mombasa, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as well as a retail network of more than a hundred service stations that are expected to boost the French firm’s grip on the retail and wholesale distribution of refined petroleum products.