London -- Share sales in new Saudi Arabian export refineries will offer investors alternatives to listed downstream companies in developed countries — likely to remain exposed to chronically weak margins and high operation costs.

Saudi Arabia plans initial public offers (IPOs) for two plants in coming years, following the listing of PetroRabigh in early 2008.

These, along with export refineries in India, are likely to attract investors' money away from refinery stocks in the industrialized countries. They may also make it even more difficult to find buyers of relatively old downstream assets, most of which are up for sale in Europe, analysts said.

"There is a transfer of the industry from Europe and the United States to the Middle East and India," Christophe Barret, Gredit Agricole's global oil analyst, said.

"So investment is going to the Middle East and India too."

Not all oil equities follow headline crude oil prices. Shares of independent refiners in Europe, such as Swiss based Petroplus, Italian Saras and Finnish Neste have been tracking refining margins, rather than outright benchmark crude futures.

The opposite has been true of majors such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell, which have been divesting some refining assets. Read more..