
|
 |
Woods Cross Refinery
On June 1, 2003 we acquired the Woods Cross Refinery, located near Salt Lake City, Utah, and related assets, from ConocoPhillips. The purchase also included a refined products terminal in Spokane, Washington, a 50% ownership interest in refined products terminals in Boise and Burley, Idaho, 25 retail service stations located in Utah and Wyoming, and a 10-year exclusive license to market fuels under the Phillips 66 brand in the states of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. The total cash purchase price, including inventory and related expenses and liabilities assumed was $58.3 million. In August 2003, we sold the 25 retail service stations for $7.0 million, less our prorated share of property taxes and certain transaction expenses, plus $1.8 million for inventories, resulting in net cash proceeds of $8.5 million. We continue to supply the retail stations with fuel from our Woods Cross Refinery under a long-term supply agreement.
The Woods Cross Refinery has a crude oil capacity of 31,000 BPSD and is operated by Holly Refining & Marketing Company - Woods Cross, one of our wholly owned subsidiaries. The Woods Cross Refinery is located in Woods Cross, Utah and processes regional sweet and black wax crude as well as Canadian sour crude oils into high value light products. For 2008, gasoline and diesel fuel (excluding volumes purchased for resale) represented 63% and 29%, respectively, of the Woods Cross Refinery's sales volumes.
The Woods Cross Refinery facility is located on a 200 acre site and is a fully integrated refinery with crude distillation, solvent deasphalter, FCC, HF alkylation, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization, isomerization, sulfur recovery and product blending units. Other supporting infrastructure includes approximately 1.5 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage of which 0.2 million is owned by HEP, maintenance shops, warehouses and office buildings. The operating units at the Woods Cross Refinery include newly constructed units, older units that have been relocated from other facilities, upgraded and re-erected in Woods Cross, and units that have been operating as part of the Woods Cross facility (with periodic major maintenance) for many years, in some very limited cases since before 1950. The crude oil capacity of the Woods Cross Refinery is 31,000 BPSD and the facility typically processes or blends an additional 2,000 BPSD of natural gasoline, butane, and gas oil.
We own and operate 2 miles of hydrogen pipeline that allows us to connect to a hydrogen plant located at Chevron's Salt Lake City Refinery. Additionally, HEP owns and operates 12 miles of crude oil and refined products pipelines that allow us to connect our Woods Cross Refinery to common carrier pipeline systems.
Crude Oil and Feedstock Supplies
The Woods Cross Refinery currently obtains its supply of crude oil primarily from suppliers in Canada, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado via common carrier pipelines, which originate in Canada, Wyoming and Colorado.
On February 27, 2007, we entered into a definitive agreement with Berry Petroleum Company to purchase black wax crude oil for six years, effective July 1, 2007. We have committed to purchase an initial volume of 3,200 BPD, increasing to 5,000 BPD upon completion of certain capacity expansion projects at our Woods Cross Refinery. Pricing will be calculated at a discount from then-prevailing market rates.
Principal Markets, Products and Customers
The Woods Cross Refinery is one of five refineries located in Utah. We estimate that the four refineries that compete with our Woods Cross Refinery have a combined capacity to process approximately 150,000 BPD of crude oil. The five Utah refineries collectively supply an estimated 70% of the gasoline and distillate products consumed in the states of Utah and Idaho, with the remainder imported from refineries in Wyoming and Montana via the Pioneer Pipeline owned jointly by Sinclair and ConocoPhillips. The Woods Cross Refinery's primary markets include Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and eastern Washington. Approximately 60% of the gasoline and diesel fuel produced by our Woods Cross Refinery is sold through a network of Phillips 66 branded marketers under a long-term supply agreement.
Our principal customers for gasoline include other refiners, convenience store chains, independent marketers and retailers. The composition of gasoline differs, due to local regulatory requirements, depending on the area in which gasoline is to be sold. Diesel fuel is sold to other refiners, truck stop chains and wholesalers. Limited quantities of jet fuel is sold for domestic airline use. All asphalt produced is blended to fuel oil and sold locally, railed to the Gulf Coast, railed directly to our customers or marketed through Holly Asphalt Company to governmental entities or contractors. LPG's are sold to LPG wholesalers and LPG retailers.
Capital Improvement Projects
Our approved capital budget for 2009 capital projects at the Woods Cross Refinery is $5.3 million not including the major projects described below or other capital projects approved in prior years.
At the Woods Cross Refinery, we have increased the refinery's capacity from 26,000 BPSD to 31,000 BPSD while increasing its ability to process lower cost crude. The project involved installing a new 15,000 BPSD mild hydrocracker, sulfur recovery facilities, black wax desalting equipment and black wax unloading systems. The total cost of this project was approximately $122.0 million versus our original $105.0 million estimate. Increased costs resulted from offsite scope additions, material cost escalation and increased labor rates. The projects were completed in the fourth quarter of 2008. These improvements will also provide the necessary infrastructure for future expansions of crude capacity and enable the refinery to meet new LSG specifications as required by the EPA.
To fully take advantage of the economics on the Woods Cross expansion project, additional crude pipeline capacity will be required to move Canadian crude to the Woods Cross Refinery. HEP's joint venture pipeline with Plains will permit the transportation of additional crude oil into the Salt Lake City area. HEP's joint venture project with Plains is further described under the HEP section of this discussion of business and properties.
In December 2007, we entered into a definitive agreement with Sinclair to jointly build a 12-inch refined products pipeline from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada, together with terminal facilities in the Cedar City, Utah and north Las Vegas areas (the "UNEV Pipeline"). Under the agreement, we own a 75% interest in the joint venture pipeline and Sinclair owns the remaining 25% interest. The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 62,000 bpd, with the capacity for further expansion to 120,000 bpd. The total cost of the pipeline project including terminals is expected to be $300.0 million, with our share of the cost totaling $225.0 million. In connection with this project, we have entered into a 10-year commitment to ship an annual average of 15,000 barrels per day of refined products on the UNEV Pipeline at an agreed tariff. Our commitment for each year is subject to reduction by up to 5,000 barrels per day in specified circumstances relating to shipments by other shippers. On January 31, 2008, we entered into an option agreement with HEP granting them an option to purchase all of our equity interests in this joint venture pipeline effective for a 180-day period commencing when the UNEV Pipeline becomes operational, at a purchase price equal to our investment in this joint venture pipeline plus interest at 7% per annum. Additionally in 2008, we purchased a terminal and rail facility located near Cedar City, Utah that will serve as a key component of our UNEV joint venture pipeline.
The UNEV project is in the final stage of the Bureau of Land Management permit process. Since it is anticipated that the permit to proceed will now be received during the second quarter of 2009, we are currently evaluating whether to maintain the current completion schedule for UNEV of early 2010 or whether from a commercial perspective, it would be better to delay completion until the fall of 2010.
Page last updated: 3/18/09
|
 |