BP Carson 6 10

BP has completed the sale of its Carson, Calif. refinery and related logistics and marketing assets in the region to Tesoro Corp. (San Antonio, Texas) for about $2.4 billion. BP will continue to maintain a number of business interests in California, including its ARCO retail and logistics presence that includes about 270 retail sites in the north of the state. BP will also continue the distribution and marketing of lubricants through its Castrol brand and remain active in the California natural gas and power sector.

With the transaction’s closing on June 1, Tesoro took ownership of the 266,000 bbld refinery near Los Angeles, as well as the associated logistics network of pipelines and storage terminals and the ARCO retail marketing network in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. While the sale included retail brand rights, BP has licensed those rights from Tesoro for Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. BP retains ownership of the ampm convenience store brand and has franchised it to Tesoro for use in the Southwest.

The Carson refinery is one of the largest on the West Coast. It became part of BP through the 2000 acquisition of ARCO. It employs about 1750 staff. The transaction includes the refinery and integrated terminals and pipelines, as well as marketing agreements with about 800 retail sites in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. The refinery is located on 650 acres in Los Angeles County, near the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors. The refinery, which began operations in 1938, processes crude oil from Alaska’s North Slope, the Middle East, and West Africa.

“With the completion of this divestment the strategic refocusing of our U.S. fuels portfolio is essentially complete,” said Iain Conn, chief executive of BP’s global refining and marketing business. “BP’s U.S. fuels business is now anchored around three, highly sophisticated northern refineries, which are crude feedstock-advantaged and tied to strong marketing businesses.”