Alcmene buys ExxonMobil stake in Karlsruhe refinery

Midstream firm Alcmene said today it has agreed to buy ExxonMobil's 25pc stake in the Miro consortium's 310,000 b/d Karlsruhe refinery in Germany.

The deal will be effective in the first quarter of 2024, "at which point we will assume responsibility for trade and supply operations", said Alcemene's parent company, Estonia's Liwathon Group. No financial details were disclosed.

This is Liwathon's first refining venture and its entry into Germany. Its business until now has primarily been storage facilities in Estonia and in the Bahamas, with more than 2.1mn m³ of capacity. Alcmene is headquartered in Austria and trades midstream oil and commodities.

Liwathon in 2021 agreed to buy Shell's stake in the PCK consortium's 226,000 b/d Schwedt refinery, again through Alcmene. Germany's competition authority cleared the proposal in 2022, but the sale did not complete and Rosneft Deutschland, which holds a 54.17pc stake in Schwedt, pre-empted the deal. That transfer was put on hold indefinitely after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

It is unclear if Liwathon still plans to buy Shell's stake in PCK.

Miro's other shareholders are Shell with 32.25pc, Rosneft Deutschland with 24pc and US firm Phillips 66 with 18.75pc.

By Natalie Mueller