Shell in talks with St1 for sale of Swedish, Finnish units

Royal Dutch Shell is in exclusive talks with Finland-based energy company St1 for the sale of its Swedish and Finnish assets as part of its earlier announced plans of selling 15 per cent of its refinery capacity in Europe and the Americas.

The Swedish assets sale includes the 78,000 barrels of crude a day processing refinery in Gothenburg, which is part of the same Nordic supply chain as the Finland business. The refinery employs nearly 200 people.

The sale also includes a marketing arm, and its network of more than 400 fuel stations, which the Netherlands-based oil company hopes to get as much as $750 million.

The Finland assets for sale are primarily oil products retail and marketing business that include 230 retail sites, 58 unmanned refuelling stations for commercial road transport, its aviation fuel business and its liquid petroleum gas business.

By selling its assets in Finland, Shell will be completely exiting the country as it has already outsourced the distribution and marketing of Shell-branded lubricants to Univar, a US-based global chemical distribution company.

Helsinki-based St1 is a leading producer and seller of CO2-aware energy. The company researches and develops economically viable, environmentally sustainable energy solutions and its energy services and products cover everything from wind power to high-concentration ethanol Refuel RE85 produced from biowaste.