28 Shells for sale?

Europe’s second leading oil group Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with other operators in the industry to sell 28 gas stations on the Romanian market, sources on the domestic oil market say. Shell officials in Romania did neither deny nor verify the information at hand. The same sources also say Shell has been in talks with several oil companies on the domestic fuel distribution market, in order to sell the 28 gas stations. The potential buyers include OMV (Austria) and private oil group Rompetrol and there is also the Rafo Onesti option. News about Rafo’s reported interest in buying gas stations has surfaced on the market lately. On the other hand, another player to have announced massive expansion plans on this market for 2003, the Russian group LukOil, is not interested unless it can buy the entire Shell network here, which comprises 81 stations, according to corporate sources. If Shell actually sells the 28 stations, it might get about $28 million for them, given that the average price per station is about $1 million. ZF