'Borco not on the block'
Venezuela does not plan to sell the Bahamas-based Borco oil storage facility, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said today.
"That is not planned," Reuters quoted Ramirez, who is also president of state oil company PDVSA, as saying at a rally outside PDVSA when asked if the company was going to sell Borco.
PDVSA had tendered the sale of the 20 million barrel capacity storage facility earlier this year, and some sources told Reuters the asset could fetch more than $700 million.
However, a source at Citigroup, which PDVSA had engaged to help facilitate the tender, today told the news agency that the sale was still on.
US investment bank Morgan Stanley and crude and products transport company NuStar Energy had expressed interest in buying the facility.
High oil prices have made oil storage facilities attractive assets, and Borco has the added advantage of having land nearby which could be used to expand the facility, traders have told Reuters.
One Venezuela-based energy consultant said Venezuela in the late 1990s launched an effort to sell Borco but later scuttled the bid amid trouble finding buyers.