Kazakh State Company Takes Over Batumi Port, Oil Terminal

Greenoak Group has sold Batumi Oil Terminal and Batumi Sea Port to the Kazakh state-owned KazMunaiGas for an undisclosed sum, Greenoak said on February 5.

Greenoak bought the oil terminal in 1999. The company said it had invested USD 200 million in the terminal, which now has an annual trans-shipment capacity of over 15 million tons.

Greenoak took over Batumi Sea Port in 2006 after paying USD 92 million. The Georgian government said at the time that the port hadn’t been sold, but rather its management rights had been handed over to Greenoak for 49 years. Greenoak, however, has taken issue with this interpretation. ?Batumi Sea Port was purchased by Greenoak,? a company spokesperson, Mzia Gegenava, told Civil.Ge on February 6. Mogens Hansen, chief executive officer of Greenoak, also said in a press statement that Batumi Sea Port ?was acquired.?

Greenoak said that it would continue managing both the oil terminal and the port on behalf of KazMunaiGas ?for the foreseeable future.?

KazMunaiGas entered a partnership with Greenoak in September 2006 when the two companies agreed to set up a joint venture to secure the flow of more Kazakh crude oil through Batumi Oil Terminal. In March 2007 the two companies agreed to set up another joint venture to build a new oil refinery in Batumi.

?With Kazakh involvement it will be possible to have a stable flow of oil via the transit corridor, thus supporting more than 20,000 Georgian workers on this route in addition to the already more than 2,000 employees in Batumi Oil Terminal and Batumi Sea Port,? Hansen said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)