Ivory Coast SIR refinery asks government to help with debts
(Reuters) Ivory Coast's SIR oil refinery, the biggest in French-speaking West Africa, has asked the government to take on debts that are keeping it from turning a profit despite record output, its managing director said on Friday.
Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR) hit a 30-year production record of 3.45 M tons of refined products in 2015 and output is on track to rise further in 2016, Thomas Camara said.
"SIR has accumulated debts since 2008 that weigh on it heavily," he said on the sidelines of an energy conference in the capital Yamoussoukro. "Our dossier is now with the government and we hope they will find a solution."
An official in the economy ministry, who asked not to be named, put the debt at over $337.34 M while an oil sector analyst estimated it at around $590 M.
Oil and Energy Minister Adama Toungara told reporters late on Thursday that he expected the government to take a decision in the next few days.
Ivory Coast is emerging from a decade-long political crisis capped by a 2011 civil war that erupted when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept his election defeat to Alassane Ouattara.
The SIR refinery in the commercial capital Abidjan ran up much of the debt when it was managed by an ally of Gbagbo, who is now on trial before the International Criminal Court accused of crimes against humanity.
The company was hit by EU sanctions during the fighting in 2011 as the international community sought to force Gbagbo to step down.
"The previous team contracted debts that had nothing to do with oil refining," said Toungara, who praised the company's current management.
SIR provides Ivory Coast with nearly all of its refined petroleum products and supplies a number of neighboring countries. Nigeria is its primary supplier of crude oil and its main purchaser of refined exports.
Around 35% of SIR's output was consumed domestically in 2011, with the remainder exported.
But that figure increased to 50% last year, and with Ivory Coast's post-war economy booming and growth rates nearing double digits, Camara said that percentage was expected to rise further.
"In ten years, the refinery's total production will be absorbed by the national market and nothing will be left to export," he said.
Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton, Joe Bavier and Jane Merriman
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