Sodigaz Burkina

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             SODIGAZ APC (“SODIGAZ”, “the company” or “the project”) was established in 1977 in Burkina Faso, specializing in LPG distribution. The company has recently grown its business portfolio into three main segments i.e., i) gas distribution; ii) petroleum distribution and retail; and iii) solar power, via several subsidiaries. The gas business distributes LPG in cylinders to commercial and retail customers. LPG is supplied to the company in cylinders from the government owned bulk storage facility. These cylinders are then stored at the companies two main depots located in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, and then from the depots transported to the reseller network consisting of ~2,200 third party exclusive resellers and 11 service stations owned and operated by SODIGAZ. The petroleum distribution and retail business sell petroleum, distillate and lubricant products along with LPG refills. Fuel for the filling stations is collected by the company from the Government owned storage depot and then transported to the service stations. The solar business is focused toward “plug and play” domestic photovoltaic solar products.The company is seeking to develop; i) an additional five service stations in the main towns of Tampouy, Koubri, Bassinko, Kienfangué and Pamnoguin and ii) to build, install and operate a 1.4MW solar power plant (“the Pamnoguin project”). The solar plant will contribute to the energy needs of an adjacent housing development, Cité Oasis, being developed by a separate entity, LOGIQ. Cité Oasis does not form a part of IFC’s investment package. The housing development’s primary energy source is from the national grid. Therefore, the Cité Oasis project is not an associated facility to the project.IFC is seeking to providing debt financing to support the SODIGAZ expansion, which will enable; (i) the automation of LPG cylinder loading to increase operational efficiency and safety performance; (ii) the procurement of new LPG cylinders and LPG and fuel distribution trucks along with (iii) the construction of new service stations and 20 LPG cylinder selling points, all of which will be equipped with solar power; (iv) construction of a requalification plant to improve the life of LPG cylinders and their associated quality and implementation of cylinder traceability using embedded radio frequency identification chips; and (v) the installation and operation of the aforementioned 1.4 MW solar power plant. The greenfield solar power plant will be constructed on a plot of land of approximately 4 hectares adjacent to the Cité Oasis housing development project. SODIGAZ has been allocated 4 hectares of land from the Cité Oasis project. The construction of the solar power plant is expected to last up to seven months. The plant will include photovoltaic ground mounted panels (sourced from Canadian Solar), the substation area (including inverters, batteries, transformer), an access road, an overhead line.