Oman Oil Co To Restructure, Privatise Some Units

State-owned energy investment firm Oman Oil Co (OOC) will announce a new structure later this year, chief executive Issam al-Zadjali told reporters on Sunday.

“With the new structure, the company will be focusing more on Duqm, managing our international assets and selling some of our assets by privatising some of OOC’s daughter companies,” he said.

Zadjali did not specify which companies might be privatised; OOC has interests in petrochemicals, power generation, shipping, and oil exploration and production. The company and its partners had invested a total of OMR9.4 billion ($24.4 billion) in companies within Oman as of 2013, according to its latest annual report; 65 per cent of its current investments are within Oman.

One of OOC’s major projects is construction of an oil refinery in the Omani coastal town of Duqm.

Zadjali said OOC would sign a number of agreements with the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), Oman’s largest sovereign wealth fund. The first would be on joint management of international investments.

“We are looking to co-manage SGRF’s and OOC’s international investments, whether they are in the energy sector or any other sector, through the current SGRF office in Tanzania,” he said. The SGRF opened an office in Dar es Salaam in January.

“In the future, we will be looking into investing in Africa, but not immediately,” Zadjali said without elaborating.