Petroplus Sells Cressier and Antwerp Refineries to Trading Houses

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--Varo Holdings S.A., a joint venture between Vitol Group (Rotterdam), one of the world's largest oil traders, and AtlasInvest (Brussels, Belgium), has announced that it has entered into an agreement to buy Petroplus's Cressier refinery in Switzerland, as well as related marketing and logistics assets. Petroplus Tankstorage AG, Oleoduc du Jura Neuchatelois and Societe Francaise du Pipeline du Jura are among the marketing and logistics assets to be included in the transaction.

The Cressier refinery has a capacity of 68,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) and has visbreaking and thermal cracking capabilities. Located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, near Neuchatel, it was commissioned by Shell in 1966 and purchased by Petroplus Holdings AG (VTX:PPHN) (Zug, Switzerland) in 2000. The Cressier site has been closed since mid-January, when Petroplus revealed that liquidity problems had forced it to cease operations at three of its five European refineries. For more information, see April 22 article - Petroplus Ceases Operations at French Reichstett Refinery.

Varo Holding S.A. intends to restart the refinery and continue refining operations. The closing of the transaction is expected in the second quarter of 2012 and is subject to approvals by the courts and regulators, among other things.

Gunvor S.A. (Geneva, Switzerland), another leading oil trader, completed the acquisition of another Petroplus refinery in Antwerp last week. Torbjorn Tornqvist, chief executive, described the purchase as part of the company's "wider strategy of diversification from pure trading operations."

The Antwerp refinery has a refining capacity of 107,500 BBL/d, and the refinery is capable of processing a predominantly sour crude slate to produce low-sulfur products, such as gasoline, naphtha, ULSD, heating oil and vacuum gas oil. It is north of Antwerp and has a storage capacity of more than 1.2 million cubic metres.

The move is the latest in a series of acquisitions of physical assets--including oilfields and mines, refineries, warehouses, and petrol stations--by commodity trading houses, as they expand their operations from the traditional role of middlemen to greater control of the supply chain of natural resources.

"We, like others, are looking to invest in the whole supply chain," said Ian Taylor, the chief executive of Vitol.

Vitol also owns refineries in Fujairah, the United Arab Emirates and Antwerp, with a combined capacity of 100,000 BBL/d.

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