---

Sharjah-based Gulf Petrochem has purchased Essar Oil's marketing licence and retail outlets in Kenya in a deal worth roughly $5 million, Business Standard reports.

"Gulf Petrochem is looking at it from a strategic perspective. It plans to expand in Africa, which it sees as a good growth market," a source told the website. An email sent by Essar Oil stated that the company had "strategically decided to exit from the Kenya market and focus on other assets and markets in India and UK".

Mumbai-based Essar Group has a small presence in Kenya, with just four retail outlets, all of which are owned by Essar Petroleum East Africa. Essar has recently announced it is delisting several of its businesses, including Essar Shipping and Essar Ports. Gulf Petrochem meanwhile has been looking to expand. In October 2014 Gulf Petroleum made an offer to acquire 26 percent of Sah Petroleums Ltd, and in January 2015 the company began new bunker supply operations in Khor Fakkan, UAE.

Gulf Petrochem has also expressed ambitions to expand significantly in Singapore, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, telling Gulf News in January that the company is "on a development spree" and that for 2015 the company's "focus is on East Africa and Nigeria".

Gulf Petrochem FZC and its subsidiaries offer bunkering services in several ports in the UAE and India. The company operates terminals in Sharjah's Hamriyah Free Zone, Fujairah and Pipavav.

The Hamriyah terminal has a total of 14 tanks with capacities ranging from 600 cubic metres (cbm) to 3,700 cbm. The total capacity is 35,000 cbm.

The Fujairah oil facility has a first-phase storage capacity of 412,000 cbm. It has tanks ranging from 13,000 cbm to 40,000 cbm in size.

The Pipavav oil terminal is being built to include 44 tanks with a total storage capacity of 248,000 cbm.