Ann: Peak and Shenghe Sign Offtake and Strategic Co-operation MOU, page-43

Agree with the sentiment that this was somewhat inevitable given the decision by Shenghe to take a position in the company. I’ve always been somewhat sceptical about the Teesside Refinery strategy. It seemed to lock in a very hard road approach tied to a country (UK) with limited political capital to play with in Tanzania. There were a number of other options that could have been pursued including the obvious one, Oman. Oman has extremely strong historical links with Tanzania, has a significant amount of political capital with the government and seeking to diversify away from petrochemicals. Because Oman has a well-educated populous, a is a modern moderate MENA country it may well have garnered support and finance from western governments. Added to that it is relatively close geographically to Tanzania.

The previous boards and executives have had years to consider how best to move forward. How due to a quixotic, blinkered view with respect to Teesside have not managed to benefit the economic future of the company. Expecting a Western country to come to the fore with financial support was always going to be fraught with history demonstrating that this was not going to happen until a point of crisis arose.

Hardly surprising then, that the new exec chair with a exemplarily record of successful transactions with China and the introduction of a major Chinese shareholder, it has led to today’s announcement. Hence hardly likely to engender frisson with observes. That said it seems now the logical way forward.