http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/08022...

Thu Feb 21, 11:36 AM

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Canadian firm Winfield Resources Limited on Thursday said that Mauritania had granted it a licence to build an oil refinery with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day as par of a multi-billion dollar scheme.

"Our company has received this licence and is preparing the different stages of preparation ... in terms of investment, training Mauritian technical staff and the other required arrangements," Winfield's representative in Mauritania, Bouna Ould Hassen, told AFP.

The refinery proposal, with the start of construction due in six months, is part of a broader seven billion dollar (4.7 billion euro) investment programme that will also include a seawater desalination plant and an electric power plant for the oil installation.

"The surplus water and electricity will be sold locally and to countries in the region that express a need for them," Ould Hassen said.

The licence to refine oil in the west African mainly desert nation, the latest producer on the continent, was only announced by Winfield Resources, which published a press release on its web site dated February 15, stating that the refinery was due to be built at the port of Nouakchott.

The Mauritanian government last week dismissed two senior civil servants -- the director of legislation and the president of the national hydrocarbon fuels commission -- for "non-respect of the law" in the case.

On Wednesday, the Mauritanian state general inspectorate said in a statement that it was probing the delivery of the licence to Winfield Resources, in order "to verify its legality".

Ould Hassen told AFP that the deal and the licence itself were not at issue.

"If there is an inquiry, it's certainly an internal government affair, it does not concern us directly and we will continue to work to bring about our project," he said.