BP to acquire Nerefco refinery from Chevron

March 5, 2007
BP PLC will become the new operator and owner of the 400,000 b/d Nerefco refinery in the Netherlands following a $900 million deal with its minority shareholder Chevron Corp.

Uchenna Izundu
International Editor

LONDON, Mar. 5 -- BP PLC will become the new operator and owner of the 400,000 b/d Nerefco refinery in the Netherlands following a $900 million deal with its minority shareholder Chevron Corp.

BP has bought Chevron's manufacturing company Texaco Raffinaderij Pernis BV, which has a 31% interest in Nerefco, a 22.8% stake in the TEAM oil terminal, and a 17.6 million bbl storage facility, associated pipelines, and a 31% interest in a nearby 22-Mw wind farm.

Prior to the transaction, BP had a 69% stake in Nerefco and it worked with Chevron in running the refinery. "It will become easier to simplify our operations once we operate it fully and centralize our crude buy in," a BP spokeswoman told OGJ. "This is an important regional hub in Europe because of its location."

Nerefco is a large, flexible refinery that is ideally configured to serve the growing demands for clean transport fuels, particularly diesel, throughout Europe, said John Manzoni, chief executive of BP refining and marketing.

The refinery supplies aviation fuel to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and fuel for Chevron's network of retail outlets in the Netherlands.

Chevron sold Texaco Raffinaderij Pernis to focus on utilizing its resources and investments in areas of market and supply strength and improve shareholder.

Upon completion, BP will have 878,000 b/d of crude oil distillation capacity in Europe.

The parties need to gain regulatory approvals and hope to complete the purchase in the first half.

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].