ADNOC sells refining stake to European partners

THE Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has sold off a 35% stake in its refining business to Italy’s Eni and Austria’s OMV as it seeks to increase efficiencies and diversify downstream.

Eni and OMV are buying a 20% and 15% stake respectively in ADNOC Refining in a deal that values the business at US$19.3bn. ADNOC has two refineries – the Ruwais and Abu Dhabi refineries – which have a total refining capacity of 922,000 bbl/d. The partners have also agreed to form a joint venture to export 70% of their refined products.

The partnerships will help ADNOC reduce its dependence on crude oil by expanding its refining and petrochemicals operations at Ruwais, as it seeks to become an international downstream leader.

 “Working closely with our partners, we will also deliver further efficiencies across our operations and improve asset and business performance,” said ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.

Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, said: “This transaction, which allows us to enter the United Arab Emirates’ downstream sector and represents a 35% increase in Eni’s global refining capacity, is in line with our announced strategy to make Eni’s overall portfolio more geographically diversified, more balanced along the value chain, more efficient and more resilient to cope with market volatility.”

The deals are expected to close in Q3 2019.