Texas firm to alter face of California fuel market
San Antonio, Texas-based Tesoro Corp. is set to become a major player in the Southern California petroleum market with its announcement to buy the Shell Wilmington refinery near the Long Beach-Los Angeles ports, along with 250 Shell filling stations, for $1.63 billion.
The deal, made public last week, also includes the value of current Shell oil inventory estimated at $180 million to $200 million. In a separate deal, Tesoro will purchase 140 U.S.-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 that 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.
Tesoro expects both deals, pending government regulatory approval, to close in the second quarter.
Texas firm to alter face of California fuel market
