Shell to sell minority share in Ceska Rafinerska

Royal Dutch Shell has offered to sell its minority stake in oil refiner Ceska Rafinerska to the Czech government, a senior government official was quoted as saying on April 9. Shell owns 16.5 % of Ceska Rafinerska, which is majority-owned by Unipetrol, a unit of Poland’s PKN Orlen.
Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kuba said, “We got an offer earlier this year. We’ll need to discuss it with other economic ministries.”
Ceska Rafinerska operates two refineries. While Unipetrol holds a 51% stake in the refiner, Eni SpA of Italy owns 32.5% and Shell the rest.
Czech government officials have said in the past they would be keen to snap up minority stakes in the country’s refineries should they come up for sale.
The government’s potential acquisition of Shell’s 16.5% stake would make sense as part of a larger takeover strategy of the country’s oil industry, the minister said. Part of that would include combining state-controlled pipeline operator Mero with Cepro, which controls the freight, storage and sale of oil products and operates the Czech national oil reserves.
“The acquisition of the Ceska Rafinerska stake in itself is not strategically important,” Kuba said. “It would work only as a part of a larger return of the state into the petrochemical industry.”
Shell declined to comment on the possible sale.
(April 10, 2013)