(Adds details, analyst comments, history)
HOUSTON/MEXICO CITY, May 24 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell
agreed to sell its controlling interest in a Texas
refinery to partner Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for about $596
million, the latest move by the European oil major to cut its
global refining footprint.
The deal ends a 28-year partnership between Shell and Pemex,
Mexico's state-run oil company that processed up to 340,000
barrels per day of oil into gasoline and diesel. The deal was
significantly revamped three years ago in a move to halve its
purchases of Mexican crude beginning in 2023.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had complained
this month the Deer Park, Texas, joint venture had not been
profitable for Mexico, and said he was committed to "addressing
this issue" without providing details.
In a tweet on Monday, Obrador praised the buyout that makes
Pemex the refinery's sole owner and gives it the first ownership
of a plant outside of Mexico. The refinery, shipping docks and
an adjacent chemical plant that Shell will retain ownership
covers 2,300 acres outside of Houston.
Neither Obrador, nor the announcement of the sale indicated
whether Pemex or another company would operate the U.S. plant.
"The most important thing is that in 2023 we will be
self-sufficient in gasoline and diesel," Lopez Obrador said on
Twitter. "There will be no increases in fuel prices," Lopez
Obrador added in his tweet.
In 2018, Pemex struck a deal that allowed Shell to invest
the refinery's profits into an overhaul of the facility that
allowed to process other suppliers' crudes, said Gonzalo Monroy,
a Mexico City-based oil analyst.
"They thought at Pemex at that time that they could allocate
Maya crude to another market, but the market situation is very
different now: Pemex has plenty of crude oil and fuel oil, and
needs gasoline and diesel from the U.S. Gulf," Monroy said.
Shell will retain control of the chemical plant that adjoins
the 318,000-bpd Deer Park, Texas, refinery that sits along the
Houston Ship Channel.
The sale comes as Shell is shrinking its refining and
chemicals portfolio as part of a broader shift by oil majors to
reduce their hydrocarbon footprint and shift to lower-carbon
fuels.
On May 4, Shell disclosed plans to sell its 149,000-bpd
Puget Sound refinery in Anacortes, Washington, to U.S. refiner
HollyFrontier.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Stefanie Eschenbacher in
Mexico City, Nishara Karuvalli Pathikkal and Sumita Layek in
Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
