The sale of the Petroplus oil refinery at Cressier will see it restarted by the middle of the year
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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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