The Sines complex in Portugal has changed hands for an undisclosed sum

Borealis has sold its petrochemicals and plastics complex at Sines, in Portugal, to Spain’s Repsol group, subject to approval by the EU Commission.

The business, originally established by Portugal’s CNP concern in the late 1970s, centres on a 350,000tpa ethylene cracker and comprises two PE plants, a 145,000tpa LDPE unit and a 130,000tpa HDPE plant. The deal will boost Repsol’s cracker capacity by 38% and lift its PE capability by 55%.

Both parties see the deal, for which no financial details have been disclosed, as fitting their strategic interests. Repsol boosts its position in the Iberian peninsula and strengthens its supply position to its Portuguese customers. For Borealis, the agreement means a focus on four other European sites in Austria, Belgium, Finland and Scandinavia. However, the group will retain a customer service centre in Barcelona.

Borealis’s interests in the Sines complex arose through the desire of Finland’s Neste group, which was the co-founder of the group with Statoil, to broaden its horizons in the early 1990s.