An Essar Oil-led consortium of three companies is moving closer to acquiring 51 per cent in the Nigerian government-run Port Harcourt Refining Company, one of the four refineries slated for privatisation.The refinery has a 60,000-barrels-per-day capacity.

Petroleum India International (PII), a single-window organisation of the local petroleum industry, which provides technical services in the refining space, is also in the race with another consortium as a technical partner.

"Four parties are bidding for the Nigerian government's 51 per cent stake in Port Harcourt Refining Company. The price of the stake can be around $300 million," oil industry sources said. The four are the Oando group of Nigeria and three consortia led by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, Essar Oil and Refinee Petroplus of the UK. Chrome Oil of the US and Chinese Petroleum Corporation are the members of the Essar Oil-led consortium.

Essar executives did not comment on the bid. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) of Nigeria had earlier twice rejected all technical bids submitted by the four parties vying for the refinery. In November last year, when technical bids were invited for the second time, the Oando consortium, the Refinee Petroplus consortium and the Transnational Corporation consortium presented the same technical partner_ Petroleum India International_ in contradiction of the bidding rules. Due to this, their bids were automatically disqualified.

After getting clarification from the companies, the BPE had issued revised requests for proposals for the third time. The technical bids were opened on April 25 and are being evaluated. At the next stage, technically qualified bidders will proceed to put up financial bids.

The Nigerian government has stake in the four refineries that have been slated for privatisation. The government is looking for private participation in other public enterprises, including 16 power companies, a liquefied petroleum gas plant, Abuja Airport, Lagos Airport and some Nigerian ports.