Shell seeks buyers for stake in Germany's Schwedt refinery
Shell has restarted efforts to sell its stake in Germany's PCK Schwedt oil refinery, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, aiming to exit an asset entangled in Western sanctions on Russia and Berlin's need to secure fuel supplies.
Russian state-controlled Rosneft owns 54.17% of the refinery which provides much of Berlin's fuel, but was stripped of control by Germany after Russia invaded Ukraine and energy ties between Germany and Russia were severed.
Shell opened a data room this month for prospective buyers of the 37.5% it owns in the Schwedt refinery, a year after a previous attempt to sell it to Britain's Prax Group failed, said two of the people.
The global energy firm was seeking offers for the stake by the end of January, one of the sources said.
Liwathon Group is interested. In October, the German government clinched a last-minute deal to exempt the refinery from U.S. sanctions on Rosneft, allowing Schwedt to operate until the end of April under the current license.
Among parties interested in the refinery is Liwathon Group, a privately owned energy trader with oil and refined oil product terminals in Estonia and the Bahamas, said Tibor Fedke, a partner at German law firm Noerr, who regularly advises Liwathon in Germany.
Shell has long been trying to exit Schwedt and in 2021 chose Liwathon group's Austrian unit Alcmene as a buyer, before the war in Ukraine put on hold any deal relating to the refinery.
Liwathon's interest in German investments "includes, among other things, a possible investment in PCK Schwedt, but is not limited to this," said Fedke.
Germany must extend trusteeship every 6 months. The refinery, with capacity to refine around 230,000 barrels per day, has been a problem for the German government, which took control but not ownership of it in 2022, concerned that expropriation could escalate the conflict with Moscow.
Since then, Germany has had to extend trusteeship for the refinery every six months, hoping Rosneft would make good on plans to sell its stake while ensuring security of supply.
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