Engen buys Chevron's Mauritius operations, eyes expansion

South African petroleum company Engen is looking to expand in Mauritius after it concluded an agreement on Tuesday to buy Chevron's business in the Indian Ocean island, it said on Wednesday.

Chevron's Mauritius operations include a network of 28 retail service stations, aviation fuelling facilities and lubricant sales.

Jan Theys, Engen's board chairman, said there was scope for more petrol stations along new roads being built on the island.

We are going to look at opportunities to expand our network on the island. There is quite a lot of road development going on and we believe there is room for further expansion, Theys told a news conference.

Majority owned by Malaysia's national oil company Petronas , Engen's purchase of Chevron's interest will hand it a 22 percent market share. It aims to raise that to 30 percent.

Engen is on an expansion drive in Africa and said late last year it had its sights on Ghana, Kenya and Uganda after acquiring Chevron Corp's downstream operations in some African countries.

The company said it also planned to launch convenience stores with its petrol stations.

We are very strong on convenience marketing. We are going to focus on that and anything new that we can bring, Joan Njoroge, Engen's Mauritius managing director said.