ExxonMobil, owner of Esso Standard Oil, S.A. Limited, which calls itself the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, announced Tuesday that it is shedding its major Central American assets in a share sale agreement with Puma Energy Limited, a Swiss company.

The sale includes two Central American refineries in Nicaragua and El Salvador (in which it has a 65% stake) and the chemical and asphalt facilities associated with those refineries, as well as 290 service stations and 8 terminals.

“The Central American holdings of the ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Standard Oil, S.A. Limited (Essosa), as well as its Esso Marine Company Limited (Emsco), Esso Standard Oil S.A., and Servicios Santa Elena S.A. affiliates are encompassed in the sale,” said an Esso press release Tuesday.

The buyer puts a higher value on the assets than the seller, Jose Matus, country manager for Esso in Belize, told Amandala Wednesday, saying that the decision to sell was essentially an economic one.

Amandala readers will recall that Chevron/Texaco very recently had shed assets in Central America. Matus said that most big-name companies are today taking different strategic directions, including divestment.

Matus explained also that the share purchase agreement provides for Puma to transition out of the Esso brand within 12 months.

Whereas ExxonMobil is headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA, ESSO Standard Oil, S.A. Limited is incorporated in the Bahamas.

Matus told Amandala that the recently announced sale involves all the company’s affiliates and branches in the region, but, he said, there would be no immediate restructuring in Belize.

He also indicated that Puma was already competing with Esso in three Central American countries, but Belize and Panama are new markets it will be expanding into.

Puma, in its company press release, said that it “already has fuel marketing businesses in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and also fuel supply businesses across the Caribbean, including in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.”

Puma Energy says that it is a vertically integrated midstream and downstream oil company, active in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Baltics, the Middle East and Asia. It has over 30 operating subsidiaries in over 20 countries, and has also entered the refining business.

The company release cites Puma Energy’s chairman Pierre Eladari as saying, “…just as our acquisition of BP’s companies was a milestone for us in southern Africa late last year, so the acquisition of these ExxonMobil companies marks a significant milestone in the growth of our business in Central America. It positions us as one of the leading fuel supply companies in the region.”

According to Esso’s company press release, the formal conclusion of the sale is expected in the second half of 2011.