While Valero’s history is still unfolding, the following highlights represent some of the company’s most important milestones.
1980
On Jan. 1, 1980, Valero was born as the corporate successor to LoVaca Gathering Company, a natural gas gathering subsidiary of the Coastal States Gas Corporation. The company’s formation was far from a smooth one. LoVaca and Coastal had contracts to supply natural gas to utilities around Texas. Due to the natural gas shortage in the 1970s, LoVaca was unable to honor its contracts. After more than six years of litigation, a $1.6 billion settlement was reached, which included the formation of Valero as a new company, separate from Coastal. At that time, it was the largest corporate spinoff in U.S. history.
Based in San Antonio, Texas, Valero derives its name from that city's most famous landmark, the Alamo. Founded in 1718, the Alamo was originally called Mission San Antonio de Valero.
1981
In the early 1980s, Valero began to expand into other areas of the energy sector, initially acquiring an interest in a small crude refining operation in Corpus Christi, Texas. The company foresaw growing worldwide environmental concerns and invested more than $1 billion into the refining unit. The investment made the refinery, now named the Bill Greehey refinery, a state-of-the-art facility, producing clean-burning fuels from low-cost, bottom-of-the-barrel feedstocks.
1984
The Bill Greehey Refinery (Corpus Christi) was commissioned and placed into service. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Valero continued to grow as a diversified energy company, operating in refining and marketing and natural gas-related services.
1997
Valero announced an agreement to merge its natural gas-related services with PG&E Corporation. In conjunction with this merger, the company spun off its refining and marketing operations as a new independent company, retaining the Valero name. In the same year, the company acquired Basis Petroleum, Inc. making Valero the largest independent refining and marketing company on the Gulf Coast. The company now owned four refineries in Texas and Louisiana and had a 530,000 barrel-per-day (BPD) total throughput capacity.
1998
Valero acquired Mobil’s Paulsboro refinery, making Valero the nation’s second-largest independent refining company with a total throughput capacity of approximately 735,000 BPD. The acquisition also provided the company with geographic diversity and access to Northeastern markets.
2000
Valero entered the West Coast market when it acquired ExxonMobil Corporation’s Benicia, Calif., refinery, located near San Francisco, its 270-store retail distribution chain and 80 company-operated retail sites.
The Benicia refinery, which has a throughput capacity of 165,000 BPD, is considered one of the most complex refineries in the nation and produces 10 percent of the CARB gasoline used in California. This acquisition also marked the company’s entry into the retail business when it debuted the Valero retail brand.
2001
In June 2001, Valero executed lease agreements with purchase options for a 115,000 BPD refinery in Corpus Christi and refined product pipelines and terminals in Texas, which were owned and operated by subsidiaries of El Paso Corporation.
During that same month, Valero acquired Huntway Refining Company, which has two asphalt refineries on the West Coast – one in Benicia, Calif., and one in Wilmington, Calif. – near the company’s fuel refineries.
And on Dec. 31, Valero completed its largest transaction when the company merged with San Antonio-based Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation. With this acquisition — which was completed in seven months and without any layoffs — Valero became one of the nation’s top three refining and marketing companies.
2002
The company now has a market capitalization of $4.5 billion and employs approximately 20,000 employees. Its 2-million-BPD refining system is generally comprised of high-conversion facilities that produce premium, clean-burning fuels. With a network that stretches from Canada and the U.S. East Coast to the Gulf Coast and West Coast, Valero now has one of the most geographically diverse refining systems among U.S. refiners. In addition, the acquisition makes Valero a major retailer with about 4,100 retail sites in the United States and Canada – the majority of which are branded Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Ultramar, Total and Beacon. With the Dec. 31 acquisition, Valero L.P. was born as the purchase included an extensive, 3,600-mile proprietary pipeline network, formerly named Shamrock Logistics L.P. These transactions helped make Valero an extremely competitive company with one of the best U.S. refining systems, a strong retail presence, a growing mid-stream logistics business and the best workforce in the industry. Now, Valero is poised to take advantage of significant synergies and other opportunities for growth.
2003
Valero acquired Orion Refining Corporation's Louisiana refinery in July 2003. The refinery is located adjacent to the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, approximately 15 miles west of New Orleans. This was a key addition to Valero's refining network because the facility is one of the most complex refineries in the nation, yet still has tremendous upgrade potential, so Valero can significantly enhance the plant’s profitability and performance with minimal capital investment.
2004
On March 5th, Valero acquired El Paso Corporation's 315,000 barrel-per-day (BPD) refinery in Aruba and related marine, bunkering and marketing operations. With its excellent logistics and production capabilities, this refinery further strengthens Valero's geographic diversity. The refinery processes heavy, sour crude oil, which sells at a big discount to sweet crude oil, making it a great complement to Valero's refining network. And, it produces a high yield of valuable intermediate feedstocks that can be used to back out third-party purchases at Valero's other refineries, providing a substantial economic benefit to the company's refining system. With this new addition, Valero now has 15 refineries with a total throughput capacity of 2.4 million BPD.
2005
A milestone year of growth, 2005 is the year that Valero became the largest North American refiner and Valero L.P. decided to “go global.”
On September 1, 2005, Valero acquired Premcor Inc. in an $8 billion transaction – one of the largest and most strategic acquisitions in the company’s history. After adding Premcor’s four refineries in Port Arthur, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Delaware City, Delaware; and Lima, Ohio, Valero has18 refineries and a total throughput capacity of approximately 3.3 million barrels per day (BPD). The company has total assets of $33 billion and annual revenues of nearly $75 billion, which would rank the company No. 15 on the current listing of the Fortune 500.
In addition, on July 1, 2005, Valero L.P. successfully acquired Kaneb Pipe Line Partners, L.P. in a nearly $2.7 billion transaction. By the end of 2005, Valero L.P. was one of the largest terminal and petroleum liquids pipeline operators in the United States. As of Dec. 31, 2005, the partnership had 9,186 miles of pipelines, 89 terminals, and bulk storage facilities strategically located in major U.S. markets and in the Netherlands Antilles, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
2006
On Jan. 1, Bill Klesse was named the Chief Executive Officer of Valero Energy Corporation and Vice Chairman of the Valero Board of Directors.
In August, Valero became the No. 1 rack fuel marketer in Texas with a total of 1,900 branded wholesale and company-owned locations and significant unbranded sales volumes around the state. This growth occurred when Valero signed an 11-year agreement with Susser Petroleum -- the largest single branded wholesale deal in Valero history in terms of both fuel volumes and number of sites -- to supply fuel and brand programs to over 300 of Susser's network of 324 retail stores in Texas and Oklahoma. Valero also began branding selected sites from Susser's network of 352 wholesale dealers.
Valero was also named "2006 Convenience Store Chain of the Year" by Convenience Store Decisions magazine, a widely read retail industry trade publication.
In December, Valero completed sale of its ownership interest in Valero GP Holdings, LLC, successfully spinning off Valero L.P. and its general partner, Valero GP Holdings. By making the companies independent, both Valero Energy and Valero L.P. were in a good position to continue growing.
2007
Bill Klesse was elected Chairman of the Valero Board of Directors on Jan. 19.
Valero continues to earn industry awards and accolades, including ranking No. 1 on Fortune magazine's listing of the nation's "Best Big Companies to Work For."
In July, Valero divested its 165,000 barrel per day refinery in Lima, Ohio, to Husky Energy Inc.
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