KARACHI, Nov 25: Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (formerly Bosicor Pakistan Limited) -- the company in the business of oil refining and petroleum marketing -- has acquired a storage terminal at the Karachi Port - Keamari.

“The terminal with storage capacity of 10,500 tons would go into operation next month,” Kalim A Siddiqui, President, Petroleum division of the company, told Dawn on Thursday.

He said the asset, previously “Universal Terminal Limited” was undergoing refurbishment and with the acquisition, Byco had joined the small group of three Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), which currently possess a terminal.

On a query over Byco eyeing buyout of all of the shares in Admore Gas (Pvt) Limited (AGPL), one of the few smaller oil marketing companies, Mr Kalim would neither confirm nor deny the reports circulating in the market.

He, however, said that acquisition of an OMC has always been part of Byco strategy.

Earlier in March, Attock Petroleum Limited had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AGPL expressing interest in acquisition of the 100 stake in the OMC, but four months latter, APL announced that it was stepping out of the process. No reason was given.

Farhan Mahmood, analyst at Topline Securities, commented that with oil price de-regulation on the cards and mounting circular debts in the country's energy sector, there were chances that big local refineries would go for a grab of small OMCs, like Admore, Hascombe and OOTCL.

The analyst said that if the acquisition of Admore goes through, Byco would become fourth largest OMC in terms of its retail network. According to the 2009 petroleum statistics, Admore boasted 390 operational retail outlets. The back of the envelope calculation of Byco-Admore transaction value amounted to somewhere around Rs3.5-4bn.

“This is assuming 5pc of the total retail network is company owned, 20pc dealer owned while 75pc are mix financing,” said the analyst. For Byco, the Admore acquisition makes sense as, already being the largest refinery, it was in the process of extending complex by another 100,000 barrels per day capacity, which was expected to be commissioned in the next few months.

The company thus needed retail network to market its bulk supplies, said the analyst. Mr Kalim stated that the company had plans to go into capacity enhancement; expand infrastructure and supply chain. Byco was said to have established its presence in all the provinces and Azad Kashmir.

Regarding the petrol pumps, Siddiqui said that 162 oil filling stations were already up and running throughout the country.