Reuters: Royal Dutch/Shell in refinery stake swap with Total: Posted Wednesday 13 July 2005
AMSTERDAM, July 12 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch/Shell on Tuesday announced a share swap with France's Total involving stakes in an Italian and a French refinery.
Shell will exchange a 20 percent interest in its Rome refinery, Raffineria Di Roma, for Total's 18 percent interest in Reichstett Refinery, Compagnie Rhenane de Raffinage.
The share swap is subject to approval of the relevant authorities and conditional upon the exercise of pre-emptive rights by other joint venture partners.
Completion of the transaction, expected later this year, would result in Shell's shareholding in Reichstett Refinery increasing to 83 percent.
The Reichstett refinery has a capacity of 4 million metric tons a year and is located near the city of Strasbourg, close to the German border.
Shell's downstream activities in France also include marketing automotive fuel through a network of around 500 service stations, as well as petroleum products, such as lubricants, bitumen, aviation fuel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel oil and heating oil.
"The transaction is consistent with our strategy of active portfolio management, which aims to create maximum value for customers and shareholders," said Rob Routs, Shell Executive Director Downstream, in a statement.
"This deal would allow us to consolidate our investment in the Reichstett site while continuing to grow the oil products business in Italy having secured supply agreements with Total to continue to meet the demands of our retail and commercial fuels customers," he added.
The Rome refinery, built in 1965, is now 57.5 percent owned by Total, 22.5 percent by Italy's ERG (ERG.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and Shell has 20 percent. Rome has a capacity of four million tons per year.
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