Royal Dutch Shell Group .com Rotating Header Image

Shell: Mulls Sale Of Gothenburg, Sweden Refinery

December 15, 2009

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) may sell its Gothenburg refinery and marketing operations in Sweden, the company said Tuesday.

“Shell has started to gauge potential interest in the Gothenburg refinery and marketing businesses,” company spokeswoman Kirsten Smart said in an emailed statement. “It is very early days and we are at a very early stage of the process,” she added.

The move is in line with a shift in Shell’s global downstream strategy toward larger, more flexible and sophisticated refinery sites.

“Shell’s global downstream strategy is driven by several factors, including the reduction in capital expenditure in some markets and a refocusing of the downstream footprint, including a shift in our refining portfolio toward larger-scale, complex, integrated assets,” Smart said.

Separately, Shell is in talks with Indian firm Essar Oil Ltd. (500134.BY) over the sale of Shell’s Stanlow refinery in the U.K. and the Heide and Harburg plants in Germany.

Shell plans to sell off about 15% of its global refining capacity, or about 600,000 barrels a day of capacity, in the next three years as part of its restructuring program aimed at increasing profitability and efficiency. It agreed in September to sell its fuel and lubricant businesses in Greece for about EUR260 million.

Company Web site: www.shell.com

-By Lananh Nguyen, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20-7842-9479; [email protected]

(James Herron in London contributed to this report.)

WSJ ARTICLE

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Comments are closed.