OMV Petrol Ofisi sells terminal in Aliaga

Turkey’s OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S., which belongs to Austria’s OMV AG, has agreed to sell its terminal in Aliaga, near Izmir, Turkey, to a group of international investors, headed by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

The company said that the sale of the terminal in Aliaga will not impact the planned sale of OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S., which was announced earlier by OMV AG, and the sale process is proceeding according to plan. OMV AG, central Europe’s largest oil and gas company, has already received initial bids from Vitol SA and Trafigura Group Pte. OMV Petrol Ofisi AS, which is valued at about USD1.2-1.3 billion, operates 1,785 fuel retail outlets in Turkey and owns the country’s largest fuel storage and logistics business.

The Aliaga deal is expected to close by the end of this year, subject to approval by relevant government authorities

OMV Petrol Ofisi said the sale of the oil terminal corresponds with “the strategy for gradually increasing the efficiency of the network of terminals and the company’s supply chains.”

“At the same time this opens substantial opportunities for cooperation with the STAR refinery, which SOCAR is building,” the company said in a statement. SOCAR is building the STAR oil refinery, which is scheduled for commissioning by 2018, near OMV Petrol Ofisi’s tank farm.

OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S. will continue to use the terminal in Aliaga, on the basis of a long-term contract. The Aliaga terminal has a storage capacity of about 200,000 cubic meters of fuel, oil and lubricants and 45,000 cubic meters of liquefied petroleum gas.