Page 8 - DMEA Week 15 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

SAMIR group pushes for government help

AFRICA A Moroccan support group has called on the Lubricants to make an even lower offer of
government to take an active role in supporting $8.23mn. Each of these was a far cry from the
the country’s downstream industry following the administrator’s initial asset valuation of $2.5-3bn
shutdown of its only refinery in 2015. and were seen as derisory, though with much of
The National Front for the Salvation of the the $4.6bn of debts still outstanding – $1.4bn of
Moroccan Petroleum Refinery has asked Rabat which was due to Rabat – the low price may have
to clarify its policy regarding the future of refin- been justifiable.
ing in Morocco, suggesting it should “encourage The offers appeared to expire with little fan-
investors wishing to invest, stop negative neu- fare while in May 2020, the judge appointed
trality and move to positive intervention”. to the liquidation accepted a state offer to rent
A Moroccan company specializing in the SAMIR’s 2mn cubic metre storage facilities as
refining of petroleum products, Refining Soci- Morocco sought to insulate consumers from oil
ete Anonyme Marocaine de l’Industrie du Raffi- price volatility.
nage (SAMIR), operated a 200,000 barrel per day In April 2021, a New York court of appeal
(bpd) facility at Mohammedia until its closure. reversed a July 2020 ruling that US invest-
SAMIR’s doors closed as debts had left it una- ment firm Carlyle Group could not appeal that
ble to finance fresh purchases of crude feedstock, insurance cover its $396mn loss from SAMIR’s
and Saudi-Ethiopian majority owner Mohamed liquidation.
al-Amoudi reneged on a promised capital injec- According to court documents, the July
tion. His Sweden-based Corrall Petroleum 2020 decision by Justice O. Peter Sherwood to
Holdings held a 67% stake in the company. reject Carlyle’s assertion that its oil had in effect
In late September 2016, Corrall’s legal ave- been stolen by SAMIR had been “unanimously
nues were exhausted, as the Court of Cassation reversed”.
confirmed the verdict, ruling that the wind-up The plaintiffs (Carlyle) sought to “recover
should proceed. Creditors owed part of SAMIR’s excess marine cargo insurance policy for losses
estimated MAD44bn ($4.6bn) debt queued up they sustained when a Moroccan oil refinery
to have their claims validated by the courts in became insolvent. Under the arrangement
order to secure a slice of the proceeds from the between plaintiff Carlyle Commodities Man-
sell-off. agement LLC, then known as Vermillion Asset
In late July 2018, the Casablanca Commer- Management, LLC, and the refinery, Carlyle
cial Court of Appeal ruled that the local Banque would pay for crude oil that the refinery had con-
Centrale Populaire (BCP) – a major lender to tracted to purchase from third-party suppliers,
the company – had obtained valid guaran- and the refinery would subsequently repurchase
tees against lending of MAD1.2bn of debt, out the oil from Carlyle.”
of total borrowings from the bank of around The fund filed a claim with its insurers Lloyd’s
MAD2.9bn. of London to recover the value of the crude “after
BCP thereby secured a place as a senior credi- the Moroccan government froze the refinery’s
tor, with privileged claims on liquidated assets. A bank accounts, rendering the refinery unable to
month earlier Glencore – another major creditor repurchase the commodities”.
– had a claim of MAD2.2bn validated. In September 2020, London-based infra-
Then in 2019, trading giants Glencore and structure financer Elite Capital broke off talks
Trafigura submitted lowball bids of $14.99mn to acquire SAMIR’s assets following two years
and $11.7mn, respectively to acquire the refin- of discussions, citing a “flaw” in the proposed
ery only for little-known British firm Exol deal.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 14•April•2022