Ineos offers stake in Grangemouth plant for sale

12-Apr-10

In a bid to alleviate its debts, chemicals giant Ineos is considering sale of a stake in the Grangemouth petrochemical facility. Ineos had purchased the Grangemouth plant from BP in 2005. It is located in Scotland, and processes about 200,000 bpd of crude oil. Grangemouth is a moderately complex refinery equipped with both hydrocracking and catalytic cracking systems, giving it flexibility to produce gasoline and middle distillates, such as diesel, according to market demand. The plant is connected to the North Sea Forties pipeline, which delivers about 650,000-700,000 bpd of crude oil, roughly half of the UK's daily production. Morgan Stanley has a deal with Ineos for product marketing and some crude oil purchase. The news comes at a time when many European oil and chemical companies have been looking to sell domestic refineries as demand for fuels and petrochemical products has fallen more sharply in Europe than in most other parts of the world, hitting profit margins. Following are the refineries around Europe that have been sold or are up for sale as per Reuters: *PEMBROKE, UK- 210,000 bpd refinery situated in Wales, owned by US major Chevron, onstream since 1964. * LINDSEY, UK - 221,000 bpd refinery, owned by French major Total. It is Britain's third largest refinery, which began operation in 1968. Can process 40 different types of crude oil, while North Sea crude accounts for 85-95% of its crude oil slate. Total invested 200 mln pounds in the hydrodesulphurisation unit, to make ultra low sulphur diesel. The construction will be completed in spring 2010. * VLISSINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS- 153,000 bpd refinery. Russia's Lukoil bought 45% stake, previously held by Dow, in June 2009. Total will retain a 55% stake * HARBURG, HEIDE, GERMANY; STANLOW, UK; GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN - Royal Dutch Shell said about 560,000 bpd, or 15% of its global total refinery capacity was under review. Harburg has a capacity to process 110,000 bpd, Heide can process 93,000 bpd, Stanlow has a capacity to process 267,000 bpd, while Gothenburg has a capacity to process about 78,000 bpd.