TULSA, Okla. -- Texaco U.S.A. Friday announced the sale of its 50,000 barrel-a-day west Tulsa refinery that was shut down in August 1982 to Sinclar Oil Corp. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Sinclair will reopen the refinery, which is on the west bank of the Arkansas River, and expects it to be in full operation by the end of this year.
Sinclair estimated the refinery will provide 250 to 300 jobs.
Sinclair will use the Tulsa refinery to directly supply customers and company-operated service stations in an area extending from the Mississippi River to Nebraska and from Oklahoma to the Canadian border. Sinclair owns two refineries in Wyoming.
Texaco closed the Tulsa refinery, which was built in 1910, because it was surplus to the company's domestic refining system. Texaco decided other parts of its system could more efficiently supply the markets served by the Tulsa refinery.
'We are pleased to have completed an agreement with Sinclair which will again permit this refinery to be a contributing part of the Tulsa economy,' said James M. Seamans, senior vice president of Texaco U.S.A.
'It is obvious,' Sinclair President R. Earl Holding said, 'that the oil industry, and refining in particular, is going through a tough wringer. Accordingly, we will have to operate the Tulsa refinery at maximum efficiency to assure profitable operation and continued employment.'
Sinclair, a closely held company, operates in 18 states in the mid-continent region. It markets petroleum products under the Sinclair name through some 1,500 service stations.
The company also has a network of crude oil and product pipelines and is involved in oil and gas exploration.
Texaco has more than 400 employees in Oklahoma and is the leading gasoline marketer in the state. Texaco operates nearly 1,500 wells in Oklahoma that produce over 10,000 barrels of oil and almost 70 million cubic feet of natural gas a day.
