eshape its refining portfolio, the supermajor's spokesman Curtis Smith told Reuters.

Sources with knowledge of the Louisiana refinery operations told Reuters that Shell's executive vice president of manufacturing, Robin Mooldijk, had told employees that Shell might put the refinery up for sale.

Shell became the sole owner and operator of the Convent refinery in 2017 when the supermajor and Saudi oil giant Aramco separated the assets of Motiva Enterprises. Shell ended up owning the Norco and Convent refineries, while Saudi Aramco assumed full ownership of the Motiva Enterprises LLC entity and the largest U.S. refinery in terms of crude processing capacity, Port Arthur in Texas.

Shell is now implementing a new downstream strategy to reshape its refining business towards a smaller, smarter refining portfolio focused on further integration with Shell Trading hubs, Chemicals, and Marketing.

As part of this strategy, Shell sold earlier this year the Martinez Refinery in California to PBF Holding Company for US$1.2 billion.

At the time of the finalization of the transaction in February, Shell said:"By 2025 we expect to have interests in a smaller, core set of refineries. A key advantage of these core sites will come from further integration with Shell trading hubs, and from producing more chemicals and other products resilient in a lower-carbon future, such as bitumen and base oils."