Total in talks to sell stake in French Carribean refinery to Rubis
PARIS (Reuters) - French oil major Total has been made a formal offer by mid-sized French refiner Rubis to buy its stake in the SARA refinery in the French Caribbean island of Martinique.
Rubis said it has offered to buy Total's 50 percent stake but did not reveal the price it offered for the small refinery, which has daily capacity of 17,000 barrels of oil equivalent and supplies the French overseas territories of Martinique and Guiana.
"This acquisition should build up Rubis's position in both the French Antilles and Guiana and beyond in the enlarged Caribbean region where Rubis is already active," it said.
Earlier on Monday Total said that it plans to sell $10 billion (6.12 billion pounds) of assets from 2015 to 2017, having hit a target of $15-20 billion of sales in 2012 to 2014.
Rubis already owns 35.5 percent of the SARA refinery and could increase its ownership to between 71 percent and 85.5 percent, it said, depending on regulatory approval and pre-emptive rights from other shareholders.
Simpson Oil Limited (SOL) owns the remaining 14.5 percent.
The refinery, built in the 1970s to ensure the strategic supply of the French overseas territories, operates under a regulated price system.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by David Goodman)
