BP Fulfils European Commission Undertaking With Sale Of ARG Shareholdings To BASF And Sasol
BP announced today that it has sold two of its shareholdings in the ethylene pipeline company, Aethylen Rohrleitungs Gesellschaft mbH & Co KG (ARG). The shareholdings have been sold in separate transactions to BASF Aktiengesellschaft and Sasol Germany GmbH.
Financial details of the transactions, which were completed today, are not being disclosed.
The sale of two of the three shareholdings in ARG held by BP and Veba Oel was one of the conditions attached to the European Commission's clearance of BP's acquisition of Veba Oel. The sales of the shareholdings have been approved by the other ARG shareholders and the European Commission.
BASF operates steamcrackers at its Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium, with a total ethylene capacity of 1.4 million tonnes a year. Both BASF sites are integrated into the Northwest European ethylene pipeline grid where the ARG forms the integral part. The acquisition offers BASF the opportunity to further optimize operations across Europe. Ethylene is one of the core starting materials within BASF to manufacture a wide range of higher-value chemicals, solvents, dispersions and polymers. BASF today is also a seller of ethylene to external markets.
ARG was founded in 1969 by BP, Hüls, Erdölchemie, Bayer, DSM and Scholven-Chemie. The 495km ARG pipeline transports ethylene between producers and consumers at petrochemical sites in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is an important facility for the European petrochemical industry, linking directly or indirectly almost half the ethylene production capacity in Europe and 90% of the capacity in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The ARG shareholders are now: Westgas GmbH & Co KG; Bayer AG; DSM Hydrocarbons BV; Sasol Germany GmbH; BASF AG; and BP (in the name of Veba Oel Refining & Petrochemicals). BP will thus continue to hold one of the six shareholdings in ARG.
Office: Communication Petrochemicals
Location: BASF
Phone : 49 0 621 60 47664
Email: annette.kunde@basf-ag.de
