The ISAB plant, located in Sicily, refines around 320,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which represents a fifth of the refining capacity of the entire country.
Italy on Tuesday approved the sale of the ISAB plant, owned by Russian oil company Lukoil, to Cypriot private equity firm GOI Energy, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The ISAB plant, located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily), refines around 320,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which represents a fifth of the refining capacity of all of Italy, and employ directly about 1,000 people in an economically depressed area.
In January, the Moscow-based company announced that it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell said refinery, thus paving the way for its first major asset transaction since the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Government approval
After that, it had to get the go-ahead from the government, which relies on ‘golden power’ regulation designed to protect industries deemed strategically important in sectors such as energy, banking, telecommunications and health, thus preserving the national interest.
One of the sources affirmed that the Executive headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had imposed severe conditions for the agreement to materialize, but without blocking it. For example, she called for jobs to be protected and uphold environmental standards.
Likewise, other people with knowledge of the facts pointed out that Rome had asked GOI Energy – which was backed by the Singaporean multinational commodity trader Trafigura – to guarantee oil supplies with producing countries other than Russia.
According to the British newspaper Financial Times, the deal is worth $1.5 billion. In addition, it details that the US would have privately expressed its concern about the sale of the aforementioned refinery to a little-known fund.
Source: RT
