Holly Corporation Announces Purchase Of Tulsa's Sinclair Refinery

Holly Corporation has announced an agreement to purchase Tulsa&#39;s Sinclair refinery.<BR><BR><A href="http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=10457052" target=_blank>Holly Corp. Acquires Tulsa&#39;s Sunoco Refinery</A>&nbsp;| <A href="http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=10847496" target=_blank>Tulsa&#39;s Sinclair Refinery Hit With $240,000 OSHA Fine</A>&nbsp;| <A href="http://www.hollycorp.com/index.cfm" target=_blank>Holly Corporation</A>

Tuesday, October 20th 2009, 10:35 am

By: News On 6


By Dan Bewley and Terry Hood, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Holly Corporation has announced an agreement to purchase Tulsa's Sinclair refinery. 

With the agreement, Holly Corporation will now operate both of Tulsa's refineries.

Earlier this year, Holly Corporation purchased the 85,000-barrel-a-day Sunoco refinery. 

In a news release, Holly Corporation said it is buying Sinclair's 75,000-barrel-per-day refinery and about 2.3-million barrels of storage. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the price tag was $128.5 million.

Holly plans to integrate the Sinclair facility with its existing Tulsa refinery and build pipelines to link the two facilities, which are about 2 miles apart on the west side of Tulsa. 

6/1/2009 Related story: Holly Corp. Acquires Tulsa's Sunoco Refinery

Holly said that during the last five years Sinclair has invested more than $300 million in upgrades and other projects at its Tulsa refinery to meet current EPA requirements. 

8/4/2009 Related story: Tulsa's Sinclair Refinery Hit With $240,000 OSHA Fine

As part of the purchase agreement, Holly Corporation will be required to make an additional investment of approximately $16 million. 

Holly Corporation also plans to spend approximately $10 million over the next two years to expand the Sinclair refinery's diesel desulfurization capacity and another $30 million on a related project to add sulfur recovery capacity at its Tulsa facilities.

Sinclair, which is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, employs about 260 workers at the Tulsa refinery.

"I think it's excellent news for Oklahoma, for Tulsa," said Lee Levinson, oil producer.

Lee Levinson is an independent oil producer. He says there were concerns Sinclair might shut down the refinery if they couldn't find a buyer.

Tuesday's announcement, he adds, means the local producers don't have to worry about finding potential buyers out of the Tulsa area.

"By having local refineries here we assure ourselves that we've got an excellent market here for the sale of our crude at the highest price, instead if you had no local refineries it would cost more to transport it," said Lee Levinson.

The purchase will give Holly two refineries in west Tulsa. The company took over the old Sunoco refinery in June. Holly's CEO says they could build pipelines between the two refineries and there are no plans to cut any jobs.

In a statement, CEO Matt Clifton said "This acquisition effectively increases Holly's overall crude capacity and dramatically raises the complexity and flexibility of our Tulsa operation, while providing us with the opportunity to increase capacity at the combined Tulsa refinery."

Levinson isn't worried about one company owning two refineries in Tulsa. He's just glad to see the facility is staying put.

"I think it's good for Tulsa and I think it's a positive thing in these times where people are losing their jobs and it's just nice that we're retaining those jobs and it should be good for the long term with the money and improvements they'll make," said Lee Levinson.

Officials at Sinclair are not commenting on the purchase.

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