Reliance buys out petroleum firm GAPCO

05 Sep '07

3 min read

Reliance has acquired a Majority stake and Management control of Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation (GAPCO), a company which has a significant presence in East Africa in the petroleum downstream sector.

The acquisition has been made through a wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Industries Middle East, Dmcc (RIME), a company registered in United Arab Emirates.

GAPCO, an entity based in East and Central Africa with headquarters in Mauritius, owns and operates large storage terminalling facilities and a retail distribution network in several countries – including Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya.

It also owns and operates large storage terminals in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Mombassa (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda) and has other well spread depots in East & Central Africa. It also operates more than 250 Outlets covering retail and industrial segments.

Reliance considers its acquisition of GAPCO as strategic in nature. The East African countries, where GAPCO operates, have demonstrated rapid economic growth and have progressive government policies in place.

The demand for petroleum products in these countries is rising steadily and has mirrored the rapid GDP growth. Import of petroleum products in these countries is also expected to rise in the near future. Further, these markets are easily accessible from India and in that sense provide a strategic fit for exports from India.

Reliance owns and operates the world's largest greenfield refinery (660,000 barrels per day capacity) at Jamnagar on the west coast of India and is setting up another similar sized export-oriented refinery (580,000 barrels per day capacity) at the same location through Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL).

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