PM announces WIOC expansion

Prime Minister Gaston Browne is hoping that West Indies Oil Company (WIOC) will develop into a “regional conglomerate”.
On Thursday, the company held a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the completion of a new 100,000-barrel capacity tank, and announced that it hopes to complete three more of a similar size within months.
However, Browne said the expansion will not stop there.
“Whereas they are now involved in the petroleum business, we expect them to eventually diversify into other sectors. One of the areas that we expect them to address this year is that they could now establish a business park on Friars Hill road,” he said.
The project, which he hopes will get started within the first quarter of 2017, is expected to be developed in partnership with the private sector, on seven acres of land WIOC currently owns.
Browne suggests the company, of which government owns 51 per cent of shares, sells half of the land at $5 million and re-invest the money into the development of retail office spaces.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)