The Puget Sound Refinery is an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

on March Point near Anacortes, Washington, United States. It is operated by HF Sinclair and is one of the largest employers in Skagit County. The refinery has a capacity of 145,000 barrels a day, making it the 52nd largest in the United States, in 2015, with facilities that include a delayed coker, fluid catalytic cracker, polymerization unit and alkylation units. Based on the secondary processing units in place, the facility likely follows a 3-2-1 crack spread. HF Sinclair’s refinery produces three grades of gasoline, fuel oil, diesel fuel, propane and butane. This plant is currently the only refinery in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

unable to accommodate tight oil via rail. The permitting process is currently underway for the proposed 60,000 b/d unloading capacity of the East Gate Rail Project.

History

The refinery was built by

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

in 1957. Its initial capacity of 45,000 barrels a day (bbl./d.) came online in 1958. Before 1998 Shell Oil operated the neighboring Shell Anacortes Refinery. Shell and Texaco combined their refining and marketing operations, assets valued at $17 billion, in 1997. The joint business was known as Equilon. Antitrust litigation accepted the deal under the condition that Shell sell its current refinery, located directly north of (adjacent to) the newly-acquired Equilon refinery. The jointly owned former Texaco refinery was renamed the Puget Sound Refinery. Meanwhile Tesoro, an independent Texas-based midstream and downstream company, won bidding for the old Shell Anacortes Refinery at $237 million, with an additional payment of $60 million for net working capital. Tesoro became Andeavor in 2017, and with Marathon Petroleum's purchase of Andeavor in 2018, the one-time Shell Anacortes Refinery became the

Marathon Anacortes Refinery The Marathon Anacortes Refinery, prior to October 2018 known as the Andeavor Anacortes Refinery and prior to August 2017 known as the Tesoro Anacortes Refinery, is a petroleum refinery located about 70 miles north of Seattle on March Point (Puget ...

. When Texaco merged with Chevron in 2001, Shell bought out Texaco's share of Equilon, making Shell the sole owner of both Equilon and the Puget Sound Refinery. Shell sold the Puget Sound Refinery to the

HollyFrontier HF Sinclair Corporation (HF Sinclair) is a diversified energy company that manufactures and sells products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, renewable diesel, specialty lubricant products, specialty chemicals, and specialty and modified as ...

in 2021 for $350 million. As of 2022 it has a capacity of 149,000 barrels a day and serves customers in the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia, as well as the major international air and sea ports in the region.

References

Oil refineries in Washington Shell plc buildings and structures Buildings and structures in Skagit County, Washington Anacortes, Washington 1957 establishments in Washington (state) Energy infrastructure completed in 1957 {{petroleum-stub