Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has called off the sale of the BORCO oil storage and bunkering terminal at Freeport, Bahamas, despite keen buying interest in the facility.
The decision came after PDVSA had produced a shortlist of six buyers, down from some 40 original bidders, according to the Platts news service.
"We are notifying the parties in the short list and calling off due diligence work in the Bahamas," a lawyer for PDVSA told Platts last month.
He was confirming comments made by Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is also president of PDVSA, that a sale of BORCO was "not planned" when asked by reporters.
"That was only done as an exercise" to determine BORCO's value, PDVSA Vice President for Refining and Commerce Asdrubal Chavez told Reuters, adding that the process had been halted.
PDVSA is said to have tried to sell BORCO once before, in the late 1990s, but pulled back due to a lack of attractive offers.
This time, however, bidders felt certain the sale would go through, and it might have raised in excess of $700 million.
Shortly before the plug was pulled on the sale process, reports said global bunker player Aegean Marine Petroleum had increased its offer for BORCO from $450 million to $710 million in the hope of outbidding other contenders.
Serious bidders were said to include the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, NuStar Energy, Glencore, Vitol, PetroChina and Petrobras.
The decision came after PDVSA had produced a shortlist of six buyers, down from some 40 original bidders, according to the Platts news service.
"We are notifying the parties in the short list and calling off due diligence work in the Bahamas," a lawyer for PDVSA told Platts last month.
He was confirming comments made by Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is also president of PDVSA, that a sale of BORCO was "not planned" when asked by reporters.
"That was only done as an exercise" to determine BORCO's value, PDVSA Vice President for Refining and Commerce Asdrubal Chavez told Reuters, adding that the process had been halted.
PDVSA is said to have tried to sell BORCO once before, in the late 1990s, but pulled back due to a lack of attractive offers.
This time, however, bidders felt certain the sale would go through, and it might have raised in excess of $700 million.
Shortly before the plug was pulled on the sale process, reports said global bunker player Aegean Marine Petroleum had increased its offer for BORCO from $450 million to $710 million in the hope of outbidding other contenders.
Serious bidders were said to include the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, NuStar Energy, Glencore, Vitol, PetroChina and Petrobras.