Texas firm receives FTC approval for refinery/filling station deals

Texas firm receives FTC approval for refinery/filling station deals    San Antonio, Texas-based Tesoro Corp. Tuesday received approval from the Federal Trade Commission to proceed with its $1.63 billion plan to buy the Shell Wilmington refinery near the Long Beach-Los Angeles ports, along with 250 Shell filling stations.
   The deal, made public last month, also includes the value of current Shell oil inventory estimated at $180 million to $200 million.
   The FTC on Tuesday also gave Tesoro antitrust clearance to purchase 140 USA-branded stations for $277 million.
   Shell’s Wilmington refinery, on 308 acres adjacent to the Long Beach-Los Angeles port complex, employs about 500 workers and 300 contractors. Port officials expect Tesoro to assume leases of two Shell-held liquid-bulk terminals at the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports. Petroleum is a major bulk import through both ports.
   The deals will position Tesoro as the second-largest fuel refiner in California. The company owns refineries in Northern California, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Utah and North Dakota and has more than 450 gas stations, more than half of which operate under the Tesoro and Mirastar brands. Tesoro has no plans to rebrand either the Shell or USA stations involved in the deals. The new acquisitions will increase Tesoro’s share of the California refining market to 10.2 percent.