The sale of the Petroplus oil refinery at Cressier will see it restarted by the middle of the year
Keystone
Petroplus has announced the sale of its refinery in Cressier, Neuchâtel, to a joint venture consortium between Vitol Group and AtlasInvest which plans to restart the refinery and continue operations.
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The Cressier site, which employs 260 people, has been closed since mid-January when Zug-based Petroplus revealed that liquidity problems had forced it to cease operations at three of its five European refineries.
Dutch-Swiss commodities trading company Vitol Group said in a statement on Thursday that the new Varol joint venture would acquire the Cressier refinery and related Swiss marketing and logistics assets.
“[The purchase] provides us with access to a quality, niche refinery and a supply chain of storage assets and wholesale marketing opportunities and will become a valuable source of growth,” Ian Taylor, Vitol Group president and chief executive said.
Should the deal gain regulatory approval, it is expected the Cressier refinery will re-open before the end of June. The site is capable of refining 68,000 barrels a day.
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