Emirates National Oil Co, ENOC, is to expand beyond its native UAE following the deregulation of fuel prices from Saturday, 1 August, 2015.
The deregulation is expected to lift considerable financial pressure off the company, which has “struggled” in recent years according to a report from Reuters.
Reversing the loss of “hundreds of millions of dollars” per year, the Dubai government owned ENOC, said in a statement that it would now look at accelerating plans to enter “new geographies regionally”.
The UAE government said this month it was abandoning fixed, subsidised fuel prices and would let gasoline and diesel prices float in response to global trends. In August, the price of a litre of octane 95 gasoline will climb 24 percent while diesel will fall 29 percent.
“With the Ministry of Energy having deregulated oil prices, this decision will now enable us to move forward with our expansion plans,” the statement continued.
The company secured a $1.5 billion, nine-year loan from 21 banks in June to support its growth.and banking sources told Reuters in February that ENOC had hired a five-person team to work on mergers and acquisitions as it sought to expand beyond Dubai.
ENOC, which is owned by the Dubai government and operates service stations, fuel terminals and oil tankers as well as a refinery.
