Sinopec may buy Chevron’s SA assets
US OIL MAJOR Chevron Corporation is mum about reports that, more than a year after it put the “for sale” sign for its South African assets, it might have found a buyer in China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), Asia’s largest oil refiner.
It was last week reported that Sinopec was on the verge of buying the Chevron assets for up to $1 billion (R12.67bn), in a move that would give Sinopec its first major refinery in Africa. In a terse statement, Chevron spokesperson, Braden Reddall, said: “The process of soliciting expressions of interest in the 75 percent shareholding is ongoing.”
Sinopec describes itself as an integrated energy and chemical company. Its operations span, among others, exploration and production, pipeline transportation and sale of petroleum and natural gas; and the sale, storage and transportation of petroleum products, petrochemical products, coal chemical products, synthetic fibre and other chemical products.
Early last year, Chevron offered to sell a 75 percent stake in its South African unit as part of a three-year divestment programme announced in 2014. Chevron’s South African assets include a 110 000-barrels-a-day refinery in Cape Town and a lubricants plant in Durban, as well as more than 800 Caltex service stations.
Claude Illy, leader of sub-Saharan Oil & Gas Merger & Mergers Advisory at Deloitte, said on Monday that the possible deal provided Sinopec with an opportunity to acquire an established and large market share.
Illy said South Africa provided a large and growing market “with a clear regulatory framework in the form of import parity pricing.”