BP completes sale of Gelsenkirchen refinery to Klesch Group

Charles Kennedy Mon, August 3, 2026 at 2:45 AM PDT 2 min read

BP has completed the sale of its Gelsenkirchen refinery and related businesses in Germany to independent refiner Klesch Group, finalizing a divestment first announced in March as part of the company's ongoing portfolio optimization strategy.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The sale supports BP's focus on disciplined capital allocation and is expected to reduce the company's underlying operating expenditure by around $1 billion. Based on the asset's historical performance, BP said the transaction is expected to be free cash flow accretive while transferring the refinery's associated assets and liabilities—including pension obligations, provisions, and other short-term liabilities—to Klesch Group.

"The deal strengthens our balance sheet and simplifies our portfolio," Richard Harding, BP's interim executive vice president of Downstream, said in a statement. He added that the company is concentrating capital on the assets and markets where it believes it can compete most effectively.

The transaction includes:

• The Gelsenkirchen refining complex's Horst and Scholven sites, an integrated refining and petrochemical hub
• The Bottrop tank farm

The refinery has crude distillation capacity of approximately 265,000 barrels per day and processes around 12 million tonnes of crude oil annually, producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, and petrochemical feedstocks.

BP said it determined that a new owner would be better positioned to support the refinery's long-term future. Employees at the refinery and associated businesses have transferred to Klesch Group as part of the transaction.

Patrick Wendeler, BP's head of country for Germany, said the company will continue serving customers in Germany through its remaining operations, including its Aral retail network.

Following the sale, BP's refining portfolio consists of five refineries:

• Cherry Point and Whiting in the United States
• Castellón, Lingen, and Rotterdam in Europe

For Klesch Group, the acquisition expands its refining footprint in Germany, adding to the Heide refinery it acquired from Shell in 2010. The company also owns the Kalundborg refinery in Denmark, purchased from Equinor in 2022.

BP said its Refining Indicator Margin and refining Rule of Thumb metrics will be updated with its second-quarter 2026 results on August 4 to reflect the completed divestment.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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