Monday 4 February 2013

BP sells Texas refinery for $2.4bn

Oil giant BP announced it has completed the sale of its Texas City refinery (pictured) for an estimated $2.4 billion (£1.5bn).

The 475,000 barrels per day refinery will now be owned by Marathon Petroleum, including an associated co-generation plant, natural gas pipelines and four marketing terminals in the Southeast US. The news follows the firm’s plans to divest its Carson and Texas City refineries in February 2011 as part of a strategy refocusing of its global refining portfolio.

Iain Conn, Chief Executive of BP’s global refining and marketing business said: “The completion of this divestment is a major milestone in the refocusing of our US fuels portfolio. Together with the sale of our Carson, California refinery, which we also expect to close this year, the divestment of Texas City allows us to focus BP’s US fuels investments on our three northern refineries, which are crude feedstock advantaged and their associated marketing businesses.”

BP claims it has invested more in the US in the last five years than any other oil and gas company, with more than $52 billion (£33bn) between 2007 and 2011. It is also believed to be the second largest producer of oil and gas in the US.