Shell sells stake in PCK Schwedt to Prax Group
The Shell energy group is exiting the PCK Schwedt refinery, which is under political control. The 37.5 percent stake is to be sold to the Prax Group from Great Britain.
The energy company Shell wants to sell its 37.5 percent stake in the large East German refinery PCK Schwedt to the British Prax Group. This was announced by Shell on Friday. The company expects the deal to be completed in the first half of 2024, making the future of the important industrial plant in north-eastern Germany a little clearer. For the time being, nothing should change for the supply of petrol and diesel to consumers and kerosene to the capital's BER airport.
Shell announced the sale of its shares years ago. The Austrian Alcmene Group was long considered the most likely buyer. However, the takeover of the Shell shares announced in 2021 did not materialize. This is because the Russian Rosneft Group, which owns a good 54% of the shares in PCK via two subsidiaries, asserted a right of first refusal.
Following the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the conversion of the oil supply for the refinery, the Rosneft shares are now under trustee administration by the federal government. There are also rights of first refusal for the sale of Shell shares this time, including for the other minority shareholder Eni, which owns 8.3 percent of the refinery. Shell therefore stated that the deal was "subject to the rights of the partners and regulatory approvals".
The British Prax Group is an internationally active oil company. It trades in crude oil, petroleum products and biofuels. According to its own information, it has 1450 employees at eight locations worldwide. Prax is very small compared to Shell, another British company with more than 90,000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of 380 billion US dollars.
Shell - also known in Germany for the service station network of the same name - justifies the sale by stating that it is "reducing its global refinery portfolio to core locations that are integrated in the centers of Shell's operating activities". Executive Vice President Machteld de Haan said: "This is another important milestone on the way to a focused refinery portfolio and the development of high-quality, integrated sites such as the Energy&Chemicals Park Rheinland."
According to dpa information, however, there will be no changes to the supply of crude oil to the PCK refinery via the ports of Rostock and Gdansk or to the distribution of refined products in north-eastern Germany and western Poland. According to PCK, nine out of ten cars in Berlin and Brandenburg run on petrol and diesel from Schwedt.
The plant can process up to twelve million tons of crude oil per year. For decades, the crude oil came from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline. Following a decision by the German government, the supply was stopped and switched to deliveries of tanker oil and oil from Kazakhstan.
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- The Prax Group, a British oil company known for trading in crude oil, petroleum products, and biofuels, is set to acquire Shell's 37.5 percent stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery.
- Despite being much smaller compared to Shell, with only 1450 employees at eight locations worldwide, the Prax Group is set to become a significant player in the PCK Schwedt refinery after purchasing the share from the Shell energy group.
- Shell made the decision to sell its stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery as part of its strategy to reduce its global refinery portfolio and focus on core locations with integrated operating activities.
Source: www.ntv.de
