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The Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration (AACCA)
Lease Board has decided to grant a plot requested by
state-owned Sudanese Nile Petroleum Company (NPC),
in its regular meeting held on August 17, 2007.
NPC requested the plots on May 25, 2007, and
deposited 650,000 Br in a blocked account as per
request by the city investment directive.
The Lease Board decided to give out only one spot,
located in Nefas Silk Lafto District, Kebele 23/14,
out of the four spots NPC requested. The 2,063sqm
plot will be used for plantation of a fuel station
and office facilities.
Source at the Lease Board told Fortune that
the Board decided to give out the land after the
approval of the requested plot by experts of the
City Land Development Administration.
The Council of Ministers, in its regular meeting of
October 2004, decided that the petroleum sector
should be open for local and international investors
to address the problems of distribution in the
country.
The National Oil Company (NOC) and Yetebaberut
Biherawi Petroleum (YBP) have been functional ever
since, established with 100 million Br and 21
million Br capital respectively. The Kenyan Kobil
also has joined the Ethiopian market recently, while
NPC is now on its way.
Shell, Mobil, Agip and Total have monopolised the
Ethiopian market for the last 40 years; all except
Mobil and Agip are still functional.
NPC, established with a capital of 25 million
dollars and registered in Ethiopia in February 2003,
works on petroleum exploration, refining, storage
and marketing in Sudan.
Nile Petroleum Ethiopia has secured a 20,000sqm plot
in Sululta, 24Km north of Addis Abeba, Oromia
Regional State, for the construction of a fuel
depot. After finalisation, the depot will have a
carrying capacity of 300tn of LPG and 1,500 cubic
meters of petroleum.
“The company has finalised most of the construction
work of the depot in Sululta, and is now looking for
a spot in Addis to bring the distribution
operational,” an official in the Ethiopian
Investment Agency disclosed Fortune. “The
company is showing encouraging progress in
implementation of its investment project according
to the schedule,” he added.
Getting the land it requested was not easy according
to a NPC source.
“The Lease Board’s decision came after two months of
asking repeatedly,” the NPC source disclosed.
NPC was established in 1954 under the name Nile
Import and Trading Oil Company, as a subsidiary of
Total, with the Sudanese government holding a 75pc
stake until 1993.
NPC was nationalised in 1993, having a 55pc share of
the marketing and distribution of petroleum products
in Sudan.
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