Saudi Bin Laden unit plans $1.2b refinery expansion in Senegal

Manama: Petroleum, Chemicals and Mining Co., a unit of Saudi Bin Laden Group, plans with partners to spend $1.2 billion (Dh4.4 billion) expanding a 30,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Senegal to export naphtha to the US and Brazil.

The company, known as PCMC, will increase its 34 per cent stake in the Societe Africaine Raffinage refinery to 51 per cent after the plant's expansion, chief executive officer Jasem Al Shaikh said yesterday at a conference in Manama, Bahrain.

The facility will be able to process three million metric tonnes a year of naphtha and other products, more than double its current capacity of 1.2 million tonnes a year, Al Shaikh said.

Islamic bonds

PCMC is seeking bank financing for the expansion and will start approaching lenders this year to raise 85 per cent of the money needed for the project's first phase, to cost $540 million, he said in an interview.

The company may sell Islamic bonds to raise funds and is in talks with Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, Al Shaikh said. PCMC expects to close the financing by the end of next year.

The Senegal refinery's crude-processing capacity will rise to 100,000 barrels a day of Nigerian sweet crude oil from 30,000 barrels a day, he said in the interview.