Yorktown Refinery sold
Western Refining purchase is driving stock price of parent Giant Industries higher.
BY CHRIS FLORES
Daily Press
August 28, 2006, 11:45 AM EDT
The Yorktown Refinery has changed hands again.
Giant Industries, the parent company of the state’s only refinery, was acquired Monday by El Paso, Texas-based Western Refining. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Giant had purchased the refinery in 2002 from British Petroleum for $170 million.
The refinery is still often referred to by locals as Amoco, which built the refinery in 1956 and later merged with BP. The Yorktown refinery was the largest of three owned by Giant. Western Refining owns one large refinery in El Paso and sells its gas primarily in the Southwest.
Western paid $83 a share for Giant, which has seen an incredible run-up in its stock price and was up nearly $10 a share in early trading Monday. Giant stock had been as low as under $3 a share in 2002 after the company bought the Yorktown refinery. As crude prices have risen over the last four years, the company’s profitability and stock price has skyrocketed.