Ip takes Esso Italy: “This is how the industry consolidates”

Genova – The consolidation of the oil industry passes through Genoa for the second time. IP, the API group, has acquired from the Italian division of Esso the assets and activities relating to fuels, refining and logistics which include, among other things, the fuel depots for ships in the port of Genoa and in Quiliano, in the Savona area.

Api acquired Ip from Eni in 2005. At the end of 2017, the Italian company Anonima petroli acquired 100% of TotalErg, an operation with which 2,600 service stations, the logistics hub in Rome and the Trecate refinery in Novara changed hands, allowing the group to consolidate itself in the oil downstream.

With its 1,100 employees, 4,600 points of sale and logistics distributed throughout the country, IP is now buying Esso's Italian assets, including the warehouses in the Ligurian ports. The one in Genoa, in particular, is located in Calata Canzio, has a storage capacity of 87,000 cubic meters and is dedicated to the storage of fuel for ships that is produced in the Trecate refinery.

The agreement signed by Ip and Esso includes 75% of Sarpom of Trecate, the ownership of the Genoa, Arluno and Chivasso depots, that of Engycalor Energia Calore and 12.5% of Disma, which manages the fuel depot at Malpensa.

Sarpom manages a logistics complex consisting of the refinery, the Quiliano (Savona) depot connected to the mooring system in the Vado Ligure bay, and a network of pipelines. In short, after buying TotalErg from the Garrone family, the group of the Brachetti Peretti family is still growing: “I welcome the announcement of the operation - wrote the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti in a tweet -. It is the strengthening of an Italian operator in a rapidly evolving market and in a complex moment. The government carefully monitors the entire sector, even in Europe”.

The Esso sign will remain on Italian roads. In fact, the scope of the transaction does not include the 2,200 Esso branded service stations, which between 2012 and 2018 had already been sold to third parties, maintaining a supply relationship through branded wholesaler contracts, which will be transferred to Ip.

The move, explains the company, allows Ip to strengthen the group's production volumes, with a refining capacity that doubles from about 5 to almost 10 million tons per year, thanks to 100% control of the Trecate refinery and of the logistics system connected to it.

According to Ugo Brachetti Peretti, president of Ip, the acquisition brings "high quality people, professionalism and production assets" to the group. The acquisition, he adds, "will allow us to face the challenge of energy security in the mobility sector as protagonists, which will enable the next steps we intend to take in the group's transition increasingly towards sustainability". The effectiveness of the acquisition, the closing of which is expected in the next six months, is subject to the approval of the Antitrust.