Shell’s Nordic operations sold to St1 in $640m deal
Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its Finnish and Swedish operations, including a refinery in Gothenburg, to Finnish firm St1 for $640m (£406m), as the oil major continues to cut back its downstream activities.
The deal includes an 87,000 barrels of crude oil per day refinery, 565 filling stations and Shell’s bulk fuel business in the two countries, and a marine business in Sweden, the firms said yesterday.
Helsinki-based, privately-held St1 produces biofuel and runs petrol stations across Scandinavia as well as in Poland, some of them purchased from Statoil and ExxonMobil.
All major international oil companies are focusing on their upstream oil and gas production units and selling refineries and forecourts, especially in Europe where fuel demand is dropping, hitting margins.
Analysts said Shell had achieved a good price, given the large number of refineries on the market in Europe.