Essar bids for European refineries

India’s Essar Group has made a financial bid to buy one British and two German refineries from oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The three refineries include the U.K.-based Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and two German refineries, with a combined refining capacity of 18 million tons per annum. The move comes close on the heels of the recent acquisition by Essar of the 50% stake of western energy majors including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum and Chevron in the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd., which operates a 4 million ton per annum refinery at Mombassa, Kenya. (August 19, 2009)