Sunoco sees  refinery offers By JASON WOMACK World Staff Writer    12/13/2007Interest in the west Tulsa plant is unsolicited, the company says, but each proposal is evaluated.
 

TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World
The Sunoco Inc. refinery in Tulsa is west of the Arkansas River, near downtown.

 
Sunoco Inc. has received and considered unsolicited offers for its Tulsa refinery, a company spokesman acknowledged Wednesday.But the Philadelphia-based refiner and marketer of petroleum and petrochemical products stopped short of saying the 85,000-barrel-per-day plant is for sale.

“We received unsolicited requests to discuss the refinery, and you evaluate those,” Gerald Davis said, adding that the company is examining what the value of the facility may be to others.

Paul Sankey, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York, told Bloomberg News that “the drumbeat is rising with regard to the potential sale of Sunoco’s Tulsa refinery.”  The west Tulsa plant, which employs 375 people, primarily produces lubricants.

Sunoco is investing $400 million to add equipment and infrastructure at the plant. The project, scheduled for completion in 2010, will give the refinery the ability to convert high-sulfur heating oils to low-sulfur diesel, Davis said.  He said the investments will not affect the number of employees at the refinery.

During a November conference call on company earnings, an executive at Dallas-based Holly Corp. said the Tulsa refinery may be for sale. Sunoco declined to comment on the remark at the time, saying only that the company continues to operate the plant at the “highest professional standards.”

The refinery was acquired by Sunray DX in 1968. Sunray later merged with Sun Oil Co., forming Sunoco.  A 2005 report by the state secretary of energy’s office estimated that the refinery directly contributes $50 million to the Tulsa area economy.