More Videos
|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- Explosion in Social Media Fails To Create Many Jobs—So Far
- Sasha Grey
- 'Twittering' One's Thumbs During Bank Robbery
- Under Armour's New Recovery Suit
- CIT Talks Fall Apart, Bankruptcy Filing Likely Friday
- Walking a Fine Line: How Companies Use Twitter
- How exactly does Twitter plan on making money?
- BofA Under Secret Regulatory Sanction: Report
- JPMorgan Tops Views, Fueled by Investment Banking
- Foreclosures Rise 15% in First Half of 2009
- CIT Won't Get Bailout, Raising Bankruptcy Prospect
- BofA Under Secret Regulatory Sanction: Report
- Talks Fail to Break California Budget Deadlock
- Nokia Profit Beats; Cuts Outlooks; Shares Fall
- Mortgage Insurer Halts New Business; Posts Steep Loss
- Novartis Bets on Faster Drugs Sales Growth
- Sony Ericsson Loss in Line, Sees Global Decline
- Stock Picker: Use Dips to Strengthen Your Portfolio (Pt. 2)
- Stock Picker: Use Dips to Strengthen Your Portfolio (Pt. 1)
- Harry Potter's Magic Touch
- Biggest 3-day Gain for S&P Since Rally Started
- Apple Smacks Palm, and Palm's Hollow Plea
- Your Best Commodity Trades: Strategist
- Henes: There’s Gold in Them Hills - Private Equity and Distressed Investing
- My ICAD Infraction: One Year Later
- The De-Construction of Steve Jobs' Mansion
Text Size 
Russia's LUKOIL bought a stake in a Dutch refinery from France's Total, gaining a foothold in northwest Europe and blocking a bid by the U.S.'s largest refiner, Valero, to enter the region.
Friday's deal, which expanded Russia's No. 2 oil firm's refining presence in western Europe, coincided with a state visit to the Netherlands by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The Kremlin tacitly encourages Russian companies to invest abroad as a way of boosting ties and increasing its foreign influence.
Valero [VLO
Loading...
()] said last month it had agreed to buy the 45 percent stake in the 153,000 barrels-per-day Vlissingen refinery from Dow Chemical [DOW
Loading...
()
] , which co-owned the plant with Total.
But Total said in a statement on Friday it had exercised pre-emptive rights to buy Dow's stake in Total Raffinaderij Nederland (TRN) and sold it on to LUKOIL.
LUKOIL said it expected to pay around $725 million for the stake, its first success after years of failed attempts to acquire downstream assets in northwest Europe, a key market for the crude extracted from its fields in Russia's north.
A Total spokesman declined to say why the firm had engaged in the transaction, but Total's statement highlighted that LUKOIL was a major crude supplier to Europe.
Last year, LUKOIL bought 49 percent in Italian refiner ERG's Isab di Priolo refinery, paying 1.35 billion euro in a deal allowing it to break into the western European refining business and expanding its portfolio in the Mediterranean market.
Print
Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes