Essar in race for Shell refinery: Report

Shell hopes to earn £1.5 billion from the sale.

India’s Essar group has joined the race to buy the UK’s second-largest oil refinery, Shell’s Stanlow complex, a media report says.

Shell hopes to pocket up to £1.5 billion ($2.51 billion) from the sale, the Sunday Times said.

A spokesperson of Essar, the second-largest private refiner in India, which recently concluded the financial closure for a stake in a Nigerian refinery, could not be contacted for comment.

Shell’s Stanlow complex, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, produces a sixth of the UK’s petrol and is the oil giant’s only refinery in Britain, which is being sold along with two German refineries, at Heide and Harburg.

“Among the bidders are Libya’s National Oil Corporation and Essar, the mobile phone to shipping conglomerate owned by the billionaire Ruia brothers, Ravi and Shashi,” the Sunday Times said.

The daily further said: “American refining giant Valero and an investment vehicle controlled by the Saudi royal family are also expected to make offers.”

The auction is being run by Lazard and final bids are due on August 17, the newspaper said.

Shell has put its Stanlow complex up for sale as it tries to rein in its huge cost base and struggles with the effects of an oil price that is half the level of the historic high seen last year.