Glencore secures processing contract at Wilhelmshaven Oil Refinery in Germany
Four European trading sources have confirmed that 'global miner and commodities traders Glencore' will supply Germany’s Wilhelmshaven Oil Refinery and sell its?refined? fuels after entering into an agreement with HES International. In recent years, oil trading houses have invested in refinery through outright purchases or tolling agreements. Refineries provide increased flexibility and secure outlets for barrels. The sources said that London-listed Glencore has taken over the contract with the refinery, which was previously held by commodities trader Hartree. Glencore and Hartree both declined to comment. HES International declined to comment on a request. Two sources confirmed that the changeover occurred recently but were unable to identify the exact terms or timeline of the transaction, which was not made public. Glencore has expanded its footprint on the European fuel markets with this deal. It had already acquired a majority stake of Dutch fuel supplier FincoEnergies in earlier this month. The deal also expands Glencore's refining portfolio. It joins its joint venture with Chandra Asri to build the Singapore refinery and South African subsidiary Astron Energy’s 100,000 bpd Cape Town refined. Glencore held a supply contract with the UK's Lindsey refinery, which produced 113,000 barrels per day (bpd), until mid-2025, when its owner Prax declared bankruptcy.
PARTLY OPERATIONAL Since 2019, the Wilhelmshaven Refinery, located at the HES International Tank Terminal site in Germany's northwest coast, has been partially operational.?HES restarted a 87,000 barrel per day vacuum distillation unit that processes crude oil into low-sulphur fuels before the 2020 global sulphur limit set by the International Maritime Organization. HES purchased the Wilhelmshaven Refinery in 2011 from?ConocoPhillips and converted it to a large-scale terminal facility. Before it was closed, the refinery had a processing capacity of 260,000 bpd. According to LSEG, the plant has a hydrotreating unit that can process 16,000 bpd. The VDU transforms heavy crude oil with low sulphur, or residual fuel oil into higher-valued fuels. Hydrotreatment removes the sulphur. Kpler's data suggests that the Wilhelmshaven refining plant has been running at a reduced rate this year. The refinery imported its last crude oil in December after taking 34,000 barrels per day of crude between 2023-2025. Two West African traders confirmed that Glencore was a regular Doba crude trader. According to Kpler it exported 5,000 bpd this year of fuels, mostly fuel oil and gasoline, down from the 32,000 bpd in 2023-2025.
(source: Reuters)
