Equinor sells its Danish refinery to Klesch Group

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's Equinor said on Thursday it had agreed to sell its Danish Kalundborg refinery as well as an oil terminal to Geneva-based Klesch Group for an undisclosed sum.

The companies declined to reveal the value of the deal, which will require approval by Danish authorities.

Built in 1961 and acquired by Equinor in 1986, the facility can process 107,000 barrels a day of crude oil and condensate for gasoline, diesel, propane and heating oil, with an annual capacity of 5.5 million tonnes of oil products, Equinor said.

"This transaction supports Equinor's strategy to focus its portfolio around core areas," said Irene Rummelhoff, head of the Norwegian firm's Marketing, Midstream and Processing unit.

Equinor will now concentrate its refining business at Norway's Mongstad, she added.

Klesch, which is involved in the production and trading of oil and metals, as well as the trading of financial derivatives, already owns northern Germany's Heide refinery, acquired a decade ago from Shell.

"Given the proximity of our refinery in Germany, I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities for both refineries to work together; especially when it comes to deploying our decarbonisation strategy," Klesch Group Chairman A. Gary Klesch said in a statement.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Victoria Klesty and Jason Neely)