Thursday, June 9 2005 13:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jerusalem: National oil company, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has bid to acquire Turkey's giant petroleum refinery TUPRAS, which has a combined processing capacity of 27.6 million tonnes per annum.

The highly-profit making company has submitted a letter of intent to the Turkish Privatisation Administration (PA) to acquire 51 per cent stake in TUPRAS, for which eleven other local and international oil firms are also in the fray.

It is the second time that block shares of TUPRAS have been put on sale.

The first time the tender was held for the block sale of some 65.76 per cent of shares, Efremov Kautschuk GmbH (Tatneft-Zorlu Group) made the highest offer at $1.3 billion and its sale was approved by the Supreme Privatisation Board, but the Council of State nullified it saying it goes against public interest, Turkish daily News reported.

Four local firms, Zorlu Group, Petrol Ofisi (POAU), OYAK and Opet, and seven international firms or consortiums, besides IOC, have applied to the PA to obtain the details and conditions for the tender, it said.

The international firms include Russia's Repsol, Poland's PKN, Italy's ENI Spa, Austria's OMV and some joint consortiums involving US firms and Shell.

Before the opening of the tender for TUPRAS, the PA requires pre-qualification criteria as a condition for any firm/consortium's bid, the deadline for this is June 22.

For the second phase, the data room process, to be held from July 1-29, the interested parties are required to pay $50,000 besides the $20,000 they paid for obtaining the details of the tender.

The final phase, which is the submission for the applications for the tender and whose deadline is September 2, will require a $30 million letter of guarantee.

TUPRAS owns four refineries of Izmit, Izmir, Kirikkale and Batman with a combined capacity of 27.6 million tonnes per annum.

With the total processing capacity of all refineries in Turkey amounting to 32 million tonnes a year, its share is a whopping 86 per cent of the country's total capacity.