(Adds executive message, company statement, background)
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, July 7 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc
is weighing the sale of its 211,146 barrel-per-day (bpd)
Convent, Louisiana, refinery, the company said on Tuesday.
Robin Mooldijk, Shell's executive vice president of
manufacturing, told employees in an internal message on Tuesday
about the possible sale of the refinery, located 58 miles (93
km) west of New Orleans, according to sources familiar with
plant operations.
Shell took sole ownership of the refinery on May 1, 2017,
when Motiva Enterprises became a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Motiva had been a
joint-venture between the two companies for 15 years.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the possible sale was part
of the company's plan announced in 2019 to structure its
operations to match the future market for downstream products.
"The remaining core sites will be advantaged by way of
increased integration with Shell trading hubs and by producing
more chemicals and related products expected to be resilient in
a low-carbon future," Smith said in an email.
Shell has not announced consideration of a possible sale of
its 227,400 bpd Norco, Louisiana, refinery which produces motor
fuels and also supplies feedstocks to the company's adjoining
chemical plant.
Along with the refinery, Shell plans to sell "its associated
co-located logistics infrastructure - the products truck
terminal, marine docks, Sorrento, Louisiana, salt cavern LPG
storage, and line history rights for Bengal Pipeline," Smith
said.
In February, Shell sold its 156,400 bpd Martinez,
California, refinery and logistics assets to PBF Energy
for $960 million plus the price for oil and refined products on
hand.
That would set the pre-pandemic price for refining assets at
about $6,000 a barrel.
Because of reduced travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,
U.S. refinery utilization fell to 68% of 19 million bpd in
April. Utilization rose to 75.5% by the last week of June.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba
Editing by Chris Reese and Tom Brown)
