Azerbaijan’s SOCAR buys Italian oil refinery

Italiana Petroli’s founding family has agreed to sell the oil refiner to State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in a deal that will hand the group control of one of Italy’s largest petrol station networks, Reuters writes, referring to two sources․

The deal was signed on Monday, the sources said, without disclosing the financial terms of the agreement.

IP has a total refining capacity of around 200,000 barrels per day and operates a network of more than 4,500 fuel stations. It also owns important storage and transport assets in Italy, including for jet fuel.

Last year it posted an adjusted core profit of nearly 500 million euros.

The acquisition would boost SOCAR’s presence in the Mediterranean fuel market. The company already owns the 200,000 bpd STAR refinery in Turkey.