Valero Energy, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, with 14 refineries in the US, just picked up the refinery here for 365 million dollars, plus $100 millions in assets, and $250 millions in working capital. A deal like that does not go down every day in Aruba. While all locals are guaranteed their posts, some expatriates employed by Coastal/El Paso will obviously be replaced by executives of Valero Energy familiar with its internal workings. Valero is reported to be 55th on the list of Fortune 500 companies, which means that an entity with deep pockets is now in charge of the island’s second largest employer. Valero I understand is somehow related in business to Oscar Wyatt, the Coastal tycoon - I guess the oil world is a small one. Notably, Bill Greehey, a former Coastal official is now company CEO. He is also part-owner of the San Antonio Spurs, and while staying here at the Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, he found out that executive sous chef Hector Espinosa is a Spurs fan. A native of San Antonio, Hector made a point of meeting Greehey, and striking a conversation about his favorite team exploits. Upon Greehey’s return to his office he Fed-Ex’d Hector a Spurs cap. When the story leaked, many of the refinery people figured: a man who does that has a soft human side; he can’t be all that bad. The following is what Valero says on its website, I checked: At Valero, we're really energized about the future. We're one of the nation's premier refining and marketing companies with a 2-million-barrel-a-day refining system, a 4,100-store retail network and a growing mid-stream logistics business. Today, Valero is a stronger company, a more stable investment, a better employer and a more generous community partner. Ok, advertorials aside, Aruba naturally welcomes a community partner especially one who is dedicated to the production of clean-burning fuels. Aruba’s refinery has the capacity of 315,000-barrel-per-day, yet it has always refined an unpopular heavy, sour crude oil, usually sold at significant discount. Nevertheless, the sale was lucrative. The new owners bought the property at 15% of its replacement price. Besides, the refinery is in decent shape: more than 640 millions have been invested here by Coastal/El Paso to refurbish and update it. Why El Paso sold and why Valero bought is a business mystery. And interestingly, I found the following on line, a comment Greehey made about Wyatt: “His name – Wyatt’s - strikes fear in the heart of every pipeline executive. So, Wyatt who owns Coastal sold it to El Paso, a natural gas company, and is now somehow buying it back for a steal, via Valero, or perhaps he is getting out of the oil business all together, who knows. Reputed to be one of the richest, toughest, shrewdest, most powerful, and ruthless oil barons in Texas, he certainly is interesting to watch. As to Valero Energy Corporation: You are welcome to Aruba, as long as you are indeed committed to environmentally clean products. We want you to be an equal opportunity refinery, meaning, enforce the same controls and practice the same standards here, as you do in the Gulf Coast and the West Coast, as well as in the Paulsboro, N.J. refinery on the East Coast . . .
