HARARE - Exor Petroleum (Private) Limited (Exor) — one of the country’s pioneering indigenous fuel companies — has formed a joint venture, PetromocExor, with Mozambique oil giant Petroleos de Mocambique (Petromoc).
The partnership will see the gradual rebranding of all local Exor service stations to reflect the new PetromocExor brand.
Felizberto Guizemana, the Exor general manager, said priority would be given to the refurbishment and rebranding of service stations adding that new sites would be completed within 12 months.
“We are already working on refurbishing the Sunningdale site and will move on to St Mary’s in Chitungwiza, Kamfinsa in Greendale, Bulawayo and later the Masvingo proposed petroport project situated on the Harare to Beitbridge highway,” he said.
Exor’s capital contribution to the new company includes 14 operational service stations, four ready-to-build sites, four operational holding depots and one ready-to-build depot site as well as commercial tanks across the country, while Petromoc will bring in working capital and vast technical capabilities.
Market watchers believe the partnership will usher in a bright future not only for the two brands but for the oil industry and the country at large.
PetromocExor has a stockholding capacity of five million litres.
Guizemana noted that Mozambique has had strong historical ties with Zimbabwe.
He predicted that the joint venture would be one of the many success stories in the future of the two countries.
“Our vision is to stay as a household name in the energy sector through the merging of the two companies’ mantras of excellence, everywhere.
“With our core values based around customer focus, social responsibility, corporate integrity and shareholder return, we wish to maximise revenue earning through capacity utilisation of existing assets and grow the size of the distribution network by constructing new sites as well as expand the business into the remainder of the Sadc region,” he said.
The Exor deal follows reports indicating that a lot of foreign companies are interested in participating in the country’s petroleum sector mostly at a procurement level.
This comes as the sector has been able to easily attract investment because of fuel’s cash-business nature.
This means that the risks are quite low, when large volumes are traded.
With the adoption of the multi-currency regime, Zimbabwe is also one of the less risky markets in the region in terms of currency exchange as the money comes in hard currency.
Recently, an international oil company Trafigura confirmed that it was negotiating with Redan Petroleum over a possible change of ownership.
Indications on the ground are that Trafigura will gain control of Redan for a possible $20 million.
International company Puma Energy is also in negotiations to come into the country.
Puma has worldwide operations and is represented in all countries in Central and Southern Africa with the exception of Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
Engen is also planning to invest in Zimbabwe, after it announced that it was undertaking first-phase revamp work on Beira Terminal, an import and storage facility in the Port of Beira, Mozambique.
When complete, the terminal will be able to supply Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The first phase of the project is aimed at readying the facility for import and supply of petrol and diesel in Mozambique, which is 20 percent of the volume requirement, and in Zimbabwe, which is 80 percent of the project requirement.
This will be done through the existing pipeline to Msasa Depot.