Energy giant ConocoPhillips has engaged Deutsche Bank in London to handle the sale of the Whitegate Refinery in Cork.
An information memorandum for the sale was circulated to interest parties this week. Topaz Energy, which owns the Shell and Statoil networks of filling stations here; Maxol, a forecourt operator owned by the McMullan family; Canada's Irving Oil; and Petroplus, an independent refinery company based in Switzerland, are believed to have expressed an interest in the former State-owned facility.
Reports have suggested that the facility could be worth more than €300 million. Industry sources here, however, argue that this is too high a figure, especially as capital expenditure of a couple of hundred million euro would probably be required to upgrade the refinery.
ConocoPhillips told analysts earlier this year that it was offloading Whitegate because it was no longer a core asset. The company, which is listed in New York, operates 19 refineries around the world. Whitegate is the fifth smallest of these, with a capacity to process about 71 million barrels of crude oil a day.
Whitegate made an operating profit of $47 million (€43.7 million) in 2005 on turnover of $1.7 billion. Topaz, which is chaired by Neil O'Leary, is believed to be its largest customer, accounting for roughly half of the refinery's output. Ownership of the refinery would give Topaz greater control of distribution here.
Petroplus, which is headed by Irish-American Thomas O'Malley, is also expected to take a close look at acquiring the refinery. The company was this week given the green light by the European Commission to purchase BP's Coryton refinery in the UK. This facility has more than twice the refining capacity as Whitegate. Mr O'Malley is a former head of Tosco and acquired Whitegate for that company along with the Whiddy Oil Terminal from the state in 2001.
At the time of the deal Tosco, which is now part of ConocoPhillips, agreed to keep the refinery open for at least 15 years. In February, in an interview with a trade publication, Mr O'Malley said: "I bought it once before for $100 million and I'm not sure I would want to pay much more for it."
It is understood that ConocoPhillips will retain ownership of the Whiddy Oil Terminal in Bantry Bay.
