April 2, 2012 [All Africa] - Nigerain headquartered pan African energy giant, AITEO Group, which controls significant interests in oil distribution, gas and power generation in West Africa, has expressed interest in investing in the country after preliminary discussions with the Zimbabwe government.
AITEO Group business development director said his group, which turns over US$1,2 billion per annum and owns sub-Saharan Africa’s largest privately owned petroleum terminal in Lagos, had been impressed by opportunities in Zimbabwe’s energy sector.
“We are interested in oil importation. We will probably partner a local company through equity”.
“However, we are not yet at the stage of investment. I will be coming back to Harare soon. We also understand that Zimbabwe has gas reserves, but at this time we are still formulating ideas. However, we are very precise in our view, we are interested in Zimbabwe,” said Stephenson.
AITEO sees immense opportunities in Zimbabwe’s energy sector, which, until now, had been dominated by cash-strapped State-run monopolies such as ZESA Holdings and the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM).
Private players have been allowed to import petroleum to Zimbabwe to therefore bridge a huge gap created by perennial inefficiencies that have plunged Zimbabwe into a power crisis.
Stephenson said AITEO’s strategically located on-shore petroleum storage terminals in Lagos, South West Nigeria and Port Harcourt, South East Nigeria, formed the nucleus of its bulk petroleum storage and retail distribution network with a combined capacity of 320 million litres.
The Port Harcourt petroleum storage terminal alone has a capacity of over 110 million litres, enough to provide a month’s worth of fuel requirements for the country, which requires about three million litres per day.
“We are further increasing the capacity of the facility (at Port Harcourt) to over 130 million litres,” he said.
