MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 has put Ireland's Whitegate refinery up for sale, the company confirmed this week, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The news was first reported by the Irish Examiner. The sale listing for the Whitegate refinery comes more than a year after Phillips 66 removed the country's only refinery plant from the market, having failed to find a suitable buyer.
The US-based oil refiner tried to sell the plant near Cork in 2014 amid low refining margins, but failed to attract strong enough bids.
"Phillips 66 has decided to seek a buyer for its 71,000 bpd Whitegate Refinery and associated wholesale marketing business in Ireland," said Dennis Nuss, director of media and external relations.
"We will run a rigorous process to find the best purchaser for the business," he added. "We expect this process to last into 2016."
Refining margins have improved in 2015 as demand has picked up and the cost of crude has continued to fall. "We've seen a stronger margin in the Atlantic Basin this year, and Whitegate has been performing well in this environment," a Phillips 66 spokesman was quoted as saying by the Irish Examiner.
As MRC informed earlier, billionaire Warren Buffett dumped ExxonMobil shares held by Berkshire Hathaway and took a USD4.5 billion stake in refiner Phillips 66 after souring on the outlook for oil prices.
Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. It debuted as an independent energy company when ConocoPhillips executed a spin-off of its downstream and midstream assets. Taking its name from the 1927 "Phillips 66" trademark of ConocoPhillips predecessor Phillips Petroleum Company, Phillips 66 began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX. The company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals. The company has approximately 14,000 employees worldwide and is active in more than 65 countries.
MRC