Gunvor Group Ltd., Nicosia, Cyprus, signed a purchase agreement to acquire the assets of Petroplus’s Ingolstadt refinery and related German marketing activities.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearance from competition authorities. The closing of the transaction is expected in this year’s third quarter.
Gunvor intends to restart operations as soon as possible, following the refinery’s closure in early February as a result of Petroplus’s financial situation. The Ingolstadt refinery is one of the best performing European refineries, with a strong regional footprint in one of Germany’s most prosperous regions, Bavaria. It has a processing capacity of about 100,000 b/d.
Petroplus reported at yearend 2011 it would start the temporary shutdown of three of its other refineries in Europe after lenders froze a $1 billion credit facility (OGJ Online, Dec. 30, 2011).
