Petrolina in talks with government over refinery shut-down

CYPRIOT fuel giant Petrolina, which holds 15 per cent of the Larnaca Petroleum Refinery, yesterday confirmed negotiations where taking place between the company and the government over the shutting down of the refinery and plans to turn it into a fuel terminal.

A Petrolina source yesterday confirmed the company had refused a sell-out of the company’s 450,000 shares at £1 per share to the government – the other shareholder – and that negotiations were taking place to find a reasonable price for both parties.

Reports had suggested the spat between Petrolina and the government could lead to huge delays into the conversion of the refinery to a fuel import terminal, and that the delays could have a detrimental effect on the local fuel market.

The source said that as a shareholder, the company needed to be informed about any action on the refinery, and accused the government of going ahead without first consulting with Petrolina.

“We are negotiating at the moment because the government decided to shut down the refinery without discussing it with us, and we are the other shareholder,” the source said.

“Other companies sold their stake and left, but we don’t really want to go, so we want to know what’s happening, we want them to present us with a study on how much it would cost to turn the refinery into a fuel terminal.”

The source said Petrolina had refused to sell its shares at £1 because they didn’t want to move out, but at the same time added that the company was sure a reasonable solution could be reached downplayed fears of delays.
“We asked for more because they wanted to leave and we didn’t,” the source said.

“We are asking for a viable project and that’s it. We didn’t ask for a price for the shares, we just told them to give us a price higher than £1 a share.

“But I don’t think we will take this to court, we want to avoid taking the government to court and I am sure we will reach some sort of logical agreement and there will not be any delays.

“But we don’t know how much the project will cost and this is where we are having a problem, we wanted to know what the costs would be and how the terminal would work.”

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