London (Platts)--6Dec2012/916 am EST/1416 GMT

Trader Gunvor has bought a 10% stake in the TAL crude pipeline in Germany, which will give it guaranteed access in the system to supply its recently restarted 100,000 b/d Ingolstadt refinery, the company said Thursday.

In effect Gunvor bought the 10% in the pipeline that former Ingolstadt owner Petroplus previously owned but had sold back to the pipeline operator, a Gunvor spokesman said.

"This acquisition will allow Gunvor to secure a long-term crude supply to Ingolstadt," Gunvor said in a statement.

Article continues below...

Request a free trial of: Oilgram News
	Oilgram News brings fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news to your desktop every day. Our extensive global network of correspondents report on supply and demand trends, corporate news, government actions, exploration, technology, and much more.

The deal closed on Tuesday.

TAL has been operating at maximum capacity in recent months after Gunvor restarted the Ingolstadt refinery and the MiRo refinery near Karlsruhe stopped using the French SPSE pipeline in favor of importing all its crude needs through TAL.

Throughput reached a new record in October of 4 million mt (950,000 b/d). The lack of additional capacity meant TAL had to suspend supplies to the Czech Republic in October.

With supplies via TAL dependent on capacity, and supplies from Russia cut to low levels, Prague had been facing the possibility of a supply shortage until the end of 2012.

Czech pipeline operator MERO was given the right to use TAL pipeline capacity "outside the usual system of long-term commitments" under a 2010 agreement until 2015.

MERO earlier in November also became a shareholder in TAL, which it said should avoid any future issues with supplies through the line.

MERO agreed to buy a 5% stake in TAL from Shell for an undisclosed amount, giving the Czech company much-needed priority rights to capacity on the pipeline.

MERO joins the existing eight shareholders in the consortium that operates the 470-mile pipeline, which runs from the Italian port of Trieste to the Ingolstadt refining hub in southern Germany.

TAL links up in Germany to the Ingolstadt-Kralupy-Litvinov (IKL) pipeline, which supplies the two refineries in the Czech Republic.

In addition to Gunvor with 10% and MERO with 5%, the shareholders in TAL are: OMV (25%); Shell (19%); Ruhr Oel (11%); Eni (10%); BP (9%); ExxonMobil (6%); ConocoPhilips (3%); and Total (2%).

--Stuart Elliott, stuart_elliott@platts.com
--Elza Turner, elza_turner@platts.com
--Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy_lovell@platts.com

Tweet