In the Marketing businesses we continued to invest in selected retail markets, such as those in the UK and China, and in our growing Lubricants businesses in Asia. In the UK we acquired 253 retail sites, primarily in central and south-east England.
We signed a heads of agreement with Qatar Petroleum for the joint development of a proposed major petrochemical complex whose feedstock would come from natural gas projects in Qatar. The complex will include a world-scale steam cracker. It will also include a mono-ethylene glycol plant of up to 1.5 mtpa capacity and higher-olefin plant of 0.3 mtpa capacity, both based on Shell proprietary technologies. Shell will have a 20% equity interest in the project and Qatar Petroleum will have the remaining 80%.
We sold our 272 thousand b/d Stanlow refinery in the UK for a total consideration of $1.2 billion (including some $0.9 billion for working capital). The sale also included certain associated local marketing businesses, Chemicals Manufacturing (excluding the higher olefins plant and alcohols units) and access rights to specific distribution terminal assets.
We announced the divestment of our Downstream businesses in Africa (excluding South Africa) for a total consideration of some $1 billion. In 2011, we completed the sale of the businesses in Cape Verde, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. The businesses in the remaining countries under consideration for divestment are expected to be sold during the course of 2012. We also launched Vivo Energy (Shell interest 20%) and Vivo Lubricants (Shell interest 50%). Under the agreements, these entities will continue to market Shell fuels and lubricants, which are available in 14 African countries under the Shell brand.
In Chile we sold our Downstream business for a total consideration of $0.6 billion. The deal included all of Shell’s Retail, Commercial Fuels, Bitumen and Chemicals businesses, as well as related supply and distribution infrastructure. The Retail network of about 300 sites will continue to be Shell branded through a trademark licence agreement.
Additional businesses and activities deemed non-core were divested as part of the ongoing strategy to refocus our Downstream portfolio.
