Here's the full article

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.