Sydney – European energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has disposed its downstream oil assets in Australia to Dutch-owned oil trader Vitol and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council for about $2.2billion.
The sale, which included a refinery, import terminals and 900 service stations, was part of Shell’s global divestment program to sell $15billion of assets over the next two years under new CEO Ben Van Beurden, reported Reuters.
Australia’s Macquarie Group and its partner Glencore Xstrata who were also in line to acquire the disposed assets were not successful in their efforts to buy the assets
In January, Shell disposed stakes in a gas project in Western Australia for $1.14billion.
In addition, it also sold an 8% stake in the Wheatstone and nearby Iago gas fields apart from a 6.4% stake in the related Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration.
A Shell spokesman in Australia told Reuters he would not comment on “speculation” while a Glencore Xstrata spokesman declined to comment.
