Petroplus buys Coryton refinery from BP for $1.4 billion

Feb. 1, 2007
BP PLC will exit the UK refinery business by selling its 172,000 b/d Coryton refinery to Petroplus Holdings AG for $1.4 billion so that it can concentrate on developing its other European refineries instead.

Uchenna Izundu
International Editor

LONDON, Feb. 1 -- BP PLC will exit the UK refinery business by selling its 172,000 b/d Coryton refinery to Petroplus Holdings AG for $1.4 billion so that it can concentrate on developing its other European refineries instead.

The deal price also includes hydrocarbons valued at closing, BP's adjacent bulk terminal, and its UK bitumen business, which is closely integrated with the refinery in Essex. After the deal closes Petroplus will have 289,000 b/d of refining capacity in the UK, as it already owns the 117,000 b/d refinery at Teeside.

Petroplus will grow its processing capacity by 55% once it starts operating Coryton and transform it into a trans-European refiner with refineries in Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany after closing a deal with ExxonMobil later this year.

Petroplus also will provide BP's UK-based retail and other businesses with fuel products under a long-term supply agreement. BP will continue to operate its own UK logistics and supply infrastructure, however.

Coryton can process as much as 70,000 b/d of other feedstocks and is a sophisticated refinery with a Nelson complexity rating of 12.0 that produces gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel. Heathrow and Gatwick airports take their jet fuel from there and Coryton has one of the largest road distribution terminals in Europe.

Coryton currently produces 40% gasoline, 40% middle distillates, and the other production is LPGs, fuel oil, and bitumen.

The parties expect to close the transaction at midyear.

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].