Downstream M&A: as majors retreat, who is buying fuels marketing assets in Europe?

The low oil price and favourable margin environment in 2015 provided a window of opportunity for companies looking to divest European downstream assets with stronger margins arguably attracting more buyers and better prices. Therefore 2015 saw a continuation of the high level of 2014 downstream M&A activity particularly in the fuels marketing sector. The most prominent recent trends once again emerged from the 2015 transactions: the majors divesting non core marketing assets mostly to downstream focussed specialist independents and traders looking at expanding their presence in these markets.