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(Alliance News) - Shell PLC is planning to sell its 37.5% stake in the major German oil refinery PCK Schwedt to the British Prax Group, the company said on Friday.
Shell said it expects the deal to go through by the end of the first half of 2024.
For decades, the oil for the refinery - which is majority owned by the Russian state oil company Rosneft - was supplied by Russia via the Druzhba pipeline.
However, the German government took control of the refinery in September 2022 amid stiff sanctions against Russian firms following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The refinery's operations then shifted to primarily refining oil imported from Kazakhstan, brought in through Baltic Sea ports.
Shell had announced its intention to sell its shares years ago, with the Austrian Alcmene group long considered the most likely buyer. However, the takeover of the Shell shares announced in 2021 did not materialize as Rosneft, which owns a good 54% of the PCK shares held by two subsidiaries, asserted its right of first refusal.
The new buyer, Britain's Prax group, is a multinational independent oil refining, trading, storage, distribution and retail conglomerate.
Besides petrol and diesel, the oil refinery in the German city of Schwedt, located near the Polish border and only some 80 kilometres north-east of Berlin, supplies kerosene for BER airport in the German capital.
The plant can process up to 12 million tons of crude oil per year.
Shell shares rose 0.8% to 2,540.00 pence each on Friday morning in London.
source: dpa
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