Costain wins £45m sewage plant upgrade contract from Severn Trent

19th Mar 2026 08:28

(Sharecast News) - BP on Thursday said it had sold its Gelsenkirchen refinery and related businesses to independent European refiner Klesch Group for an undisclosed sum and raised its 2027 cost reduction target by around $1bn.

The energy giant is now targeting $6.5bn to $7.5 billion of structural cost reductions by 2027, equating to around 30% of its 2023 cost baseline.

Gelsenkirchen processes about 12 million tonnes of crude oil per year producing petrol, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and more than 50 other products, primarily for the chemical industry. It also supplies essential feedstocks to the petrochemical industry in Germany and across Europe.

Debt-laden BP is offloading assets as part of a major cost-cutting plan. It has already struck a deal to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol lubricants business to Stonepeak for $8bn. The company has announced or completed more than $11bn of its $20bn divestment target by 2027.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com