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Petroplus Holdings AG, Europe’s largest independent refiner by capacity, today said that it received notices of acceleration yesterday from lenders under its revolving credit facility and that it would be filing for insolvency after talks with its lenders failed.

Switzerland-headquartered Petropus had access to approximately $1bn in credit lines frozen last month and since then has been fighting to stave off bankruptcy.

Over the past few weeks Petroplus had been in talks with its lenders to reopen the credit lines it needed to maintain operations and meet financial obligations. In addition, the company had been seeking to arrange alternative financing and liquidity facilities, as well as other strategic options.

Oil major BP, which used to own the company's 40,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Coryton plant in the United Kingdom and sold it to Petroplus in 2007 for $1.4bn, had earlier been in talks to throw the plant a lifeline by supplying it with crude and receiving refined products as payment, however the deal never materialized.

In a statement released today, Petroplus said: "The negotiations with the lenders under the revolving credit facility have not been successful (despite the company having reached an agreement for crude oil supply) and they have served notices of acceleration, commenced enforcement actions and appointed a receiver in respect of Petroplus Marketing AG’s assets in the UK."

"The primary goal of Petroplus’ Board of Directors is to ensure that operations are safely shut down and to preserve value for all stakeholders."

Petroplus said the Board of Directors will now prepare for a filing for insolvency or composition proceedings in Switzerland and that similar steps will be taken by Petroplus subsidiaries.

Jean-Paul Vettier, Petroplus’ Chief Executive Officer, said, "It is unfortunate to have reached the point where the Executive Committee and Board of Directors have to inform our employees, shareholders, bondholders and other stakeholders about these circumstances. We have worked hard to avoid this outcome, but were ultimately not able to come to an agreement with our lenders to resolve these issues given the very tight and difficult European credit and refining markets. We are fully aware of the impact that this will have on our workforce, their families and the communities where we have operated our businesses."