Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:04pm EDT
By Emma Farge
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) plans to divest its global refining assets to the tune of around 15 percent in the next few years, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
“We are looking to reduce overall refining assets by around 15 percent,” Mark Gainsborough, Shell’s executive vice president of downstream strategy, said in a panel discussion at an industry conference.
That represents about 600,000 barrels per day.
The figure is larger than the combined capacity of the refineries, which the company said in March might be sold.
Shell said it could sell refining assets in Germany and New Zealand representing 200,000 bpd capacity.
It is also looking to sell its 267,000 bpd Stanlow refinery in the UK and industry sources said India’s Essar Oil had submitted bids.
Most oil majors have been selling small oil refineries to focus on large, complex plants equipped with advanced refining systems such as Shell’s Pernis, Europe’s largest, in the Netherlands.
After selling a number of refineries and fuel retail operations in Europe and Africa in recent years, Shell now has a refining capacity to process about 4 million bpd of crude oil.
About 45 percent of Shell’s refining capacity is located in Europe, where in general refineries are relatively simple and old while competition from new, advanced and cost effective refineries in India and the Middle East has been increasing.
“Europe is not the place to have an out-and-out merchant refinery,” Gainsborough said. “For an asset to have a long-term future it needs to be world scale or be in a very secure niche.”
FINANCIAL PLAYERS AND TRADE BUYERS
Gainsborough said Shell had been in talks with a number of potential buyers for the German assets.
“There are still some financial players out there and there are plenty of trade buyers,” he said. He declined to give further details.
In a separate interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Brussels conference, Gainsborough said Shell’s German refineries were “just too small.”
He added that European refiners below 200,000 bpd would struggle to compete on the international export market.
Refineries on the U.S. East coast probably needed to be 400,000 bpd to succeed in current market conditions, he said.
On the other hand, Shell had not ruled out buying downstream assets even as it looked to make further refinery divestments.
“If a good opportunity comes up, even in Europe, we would still take a look,” Gainsborough told reporters.
(Editing by Ikuko Kurahone and James Jukwey)
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
