French supermajor TotalEnergies has taken full control of a refinery in Zeeland, the Netherlands, which it co-owned with Russia’s Lukoil, Reuters has reported, citing two unnamed sources.
TotalEnergies had acquired Lukoil’s 45% interest in the facility for an undisclosed sum, the Reuters sources told the publication. The takeover of the refinery may have also taken the form of an asset swap deal with the Russian major, the report also said.
Reuters recalls that Lukoil bought the 45% stake in the Zeeland refinery from the French company back in 2009 for $725 million. Due to Lukoil’s minority shareholding, the Dutch refinery was not a formal target for U.S. sanctions imposed on the Russian major last November, one of the unnamed sources told Reuters but TotalEnergies took over the stake on concern about possible problems with oil supplies that could become the target of sanction action from the United States.
Lukoil’s pending sale of international operations was also a reason for the takeover, Reuters noted. Earlier this year, the Russian company struck a deal with Carlyle for its global assets, with the exception of its Kazakh assets in the Caspian Sea. The agreement is non-exclusive and remains subject to several conditions, most notably regulatory approvals, including clearance from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Lukoil said it was continuing parallel negotiations with other potential buyers, underscoring that the transaction is not yet finalized.
Earlier this month, unnamed sources told Reuters again that Chevron, together with Texas-based Quantum Energy Partners, as well as a group led by investment bank Xtellus continued talks with Lukoil and U.S. officials to buy the Russian firm’s international assets. Lukoil announced its plans to sell its international business last October, after the U.S. slapped sanctions on it and Rosneft—Russia’s two largest oil exporters.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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