PDVSA TO JOIN SCHWEDT GROUP

June 24, 1991

Germany's Veba Oel will buy a 37.5% interest in the 230,000 b/d PCK Schwedt AG refinery in eastern Germany and sell half of that interest to Venezuela's state owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Plans call for Veba and Pdvsa, currently 50-50 partners in the German refining/marketing/petrochemical joint venture company Ruhr Oel, to hold the 37.5% Schwedt stake jointly through Ruhr. Other international partners in Schwedt are DEA Mineraloel AG and a combine of Agip SpA, Total Cie. Francaise

Germany's Veba Oel will buy a 37.5% interest in the 230,000 b/d PCK Schwedt AG refinery in eastern Germany and sell half of that interest to Venezuela's state owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

Plans call for Veba and Pdvsa, currently 50-50 partners in the German refining/marketing/petrochemical joint venture company Ruhr Oel, to hold the 37.5% Schwedt stake jointly through Ruhr.

Other international partners in Schwedt are DEA Mineraloel AG and a combine of Agip SpA, Total Cie. Francaise des Petroles, and Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine.

The group expects to invest more than $500 million to upgrade and modernize the refinery (OGJ, June 10, p. 20).

It is not clear whether Schwedt will continue to be fed by Soviet crude or whether other arrangements, such as a trade involving Venezuelan crudes, will be made.