By Jessica Resnick-Ault | NEW YORK
Oct 18 2016
Royal Dutch Shell plc has retained Deutsche Bank to sell its Martinez, California refinery, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Shell is in the midst of a three-year, $30 billion divestment plan following the company’s purchase of BG Group earlier this year.
A Shell spokesman said the company would not comment on “rumor or speculation.” Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
The refinery, located 30 miles (48 km) northeast of San Francisco, has been operating since 1915. It can process about 165,000 barrels of crude oil daily into gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and other refined products. It has a coker unit used for processing heavy grades of crude.
The potential sale would also include a pipeline that brings crude produced in California’s San Joaquin Valley to the refinery.
One source familiar said the plant could be valued at about $900 million. Parsippany, New Jersey-based PBF Energy paid $537.5 million, plus working capital costs, for a comparably-sized refinery in Torrance, California, which it bought from Exxon Mobil Corp earlier this year.
Shell is entering into confidentiality agreements with buyers who may be interested in reviewing the plant’s data ahead of a sale, the people said. PBF is a potential bidder, the people said, citing the company’s interest in California as indicated by its purchase of the Torrance refinery.
PBF has sustained interest in the state at a time when many refiners have tried to cut exposure to its regulatory regime, the people said. Exxon and BP have already divested their refineries in California and Shell previously sold one plant in the state to Tesoro Corp. Valero Energy Corp had previously retained a banker to seek a buyer for its California refineries, but ultimately kept the plants.
PBF did not comment on the Martinez plant, but executives said in the company’s most-recent earnings call that there are plans to continue to grow by acquisition.
While those looking to acquire energy assets are often required to enter into confidentiality agreements with sellers, Shell put additional constraints on the Martinez process by barring potential bidders from retaining their own advisers during the first round of bidding.
A sale of the Martinez plant would leave Shell with a single, wholly-owned U.S. refinery in Anacortes, Washington, though it has several joint ventures in the U.S. Gulf.
(Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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.
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.
