EMEA News
ExxonMobil Completes Augusta Refinery Sale
The sale of the 175,000 barrels a day Augusta refinery to the Algerian oil firm Sonotrach is complete, oil major Exxonmobil has said in its latest quarterly results.
The new owner has started moving cargoes in and out of the Sicily-based plant using its chartered fleet.
"We've seen an incremental pick up in bunker operations with the change of ownership," said Bunker Energy's Tommaso Panzeri.
The local bunker company hopes "to continue and further develop" the long term cooperation between itself and Sonotrach. According to Panzeri, Augusta remains operationally a better performer than other competitive ports in the Mediterranean.
While modernising Algeria's own refineries makes slow progress, the Augusta acquisition will allow Algeria to import sufficient refined products to meet domestic demand.
For Exxonmobil the refinery sale bolstered the oil major's fourth quarter results which were up over the same quarter a year ago.
Downstream asset sales came in at $680 million although that figure includes disposals in Germany as well as the Augusta sale.
