The sale of the business, which comes hard on the heels of Shell's offloading of its Irish retail network, does not come as a complete surprise. Statoil paid heavily to build up its Irish volumes, and the option of staying was clearly starting to look unenticing.

Statoil Ireland reported a pre-tax loss of 2.8m in 2004, on turnover just over 1bn, and implemented a redundancy programme costing 6.4m. Last year brought more redundancies, and brought the company back into the black. But it still employs a hefty total of 1,100 staff.

A spokesman said Statoil will now focus on its home market, as well as northern and eastern Europe. The favoured option is to sell the Irish businesses as a unit, he said, but it is too early to say whether they may be broken up. In line with corporate policy, the Irish management team led by Tony Murray has been told it will be precluded from attempting a buy-out.

The ownership structures of Statoil's businesses mean the deal will not be straightforward. Of 236 Statoil stations, only 69 are company-owned. This makes the network less attractive than Shell's from a property perspective, but there will be morsels of interest. The company has interests in 16 local distributors of home heating oil and light industrial fuel, as well as depots in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Derry, but half the local distribution companies and two of the depots are joint ventures.

Despite the complexity of the ownership structure, the sale is expected to draw plenty of interest, and estimates of the potential price tag span from 100m to 200m.

Tesco, which operates stand-alone forecourts with convenience stores in the UK, will take a look. The Fareplay convenience brand developed by Statoil in Ireland has been rolled out in 67 of the company-owned Statoil forecourts. On the downside, these stores are relatively small.

DCC is likely to take a look, as are Sweeney Oil, Stafford Holdings and Tedcastle. For Irish-owned forecourt operators, scale is key to improving returns, so Maxol will study the form. "We're always looking for opportunities, " commented chief executive Tom Noonan.

Topaz, to whom ownership of Shell's Irish retail network transferred in November, will also be casting an eye. "We will look at all significant assets in the sector, "said Topaz chief executive Neil O'Leary. "Our limiting factor is the Competition Authority."

The Statoil announcement is yet another sign that the multinational exodus is well underway. Esso has sold about 20 stations in the past 12 months, and is now focusing on the east coast. It swapped its company-owned stations in Northern Ireland for three Dublin stations. Texaco, which has sold its UK filling stations already, is also reviewing its operations in Ireland.

Industry sources say return on assets in the retail end is around 15% on a good day, compared with margins of up to 40% there for the taking in the upstream business.