Refinery sales to re-shape UK business

Four of the UK's remaining eight oil refineries are up for sale as the major companies rush for the exit, Martin Quinlan writes

IN APRIL, Total said it will sell its Lindsey oil refinery, on Humberside. In March, Chevron invited offers for its Pembroke refinery in Wales. Since November, Shell has been negotiating to sell its Stanlow refinery, on Merseyside, to India's Essar. Since last summer, Ineos has been negotiating to sell its Grangemouth refinery, Scotland, to PetroChina. The sales will re-shape the UK's refining business. Until a few years ago, most of the country's capacity was owned by the majors, but soon the business will be fragmented with a likely presence of ambitious Indian and Chinese companies, together with smaller specialist refining operators. Some of the new foreign operators want to import prod