Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) topped off a record-breaking year by receiving several top international accolades, including being ranked the world’s No. 1 refining and marketing company and the nation’s third best-performing big company for stock performance, as well as being named a top employer in Canada.

Earlier this month, Platts — a highly respected energy industry information service — ranked Valero the world’s top refining company among its Top 250 Global Energy Company awards. In addition to being named the top refiner, Valero ranked 17th overall among the world’s energy companies and sixth in the Americas.

Valero is no stranger to the Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company awards, having been named Oil Company of the Year in 2004. The most recent Platts award was based on four metrics: asset worth, revenues, profits and return on invested capital.

“Being awarded a ranking in the Platts Top 250 is an accomplishment of prestige and honor in the energy industry,” Platts President Victoria Pao wrote in her letter to Valero’s Chairman and CEO Bill Greehey announcing the award. “Your company has distinguished itself through its remarkable performance this past year and the outstanding efforts and dedication of your team.”

That award was followed by the news that Ultramar Ltd., Valero Energy Corporation’s Canadian refining and marketing operations, ranked No. 23 on the list of the 50 Best Employers in Canada – and the best employer in Quebec.

That honor comes from the human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates, which surveys employees and managers and studies companies’ human resources practices to determine its rankings. The results are largely based on employees’ opinions as 70 percent of the judging criteria are determined by confidential employee surveys.

Most recently, Valero ranked third among top-performing companies on the Forbes Platinum 400 list, a ranking of America’s best big companies based on earnings growth and shareholder return. In compiling the list, Forbes magazine cited Valero’s 2005 stock performance and prominence among refining companies. Valero’s split-adjusted share price more than doubled during 2005, and the company became North America’s top refiner when it acquired Premcor Inc. in September.

The awards cap a year in which Valero has earned record income and seen its share price rise to record highs.

“This has been an outstanding year, with the company achieving record financial success while celebrating its 25th anniversary, our stock splitting two-for-one, and our employees earning unprecedented recognition,” Greehey said. “Valero is the best company because we have the best employees. But as great as this year has been, I still believe the best is yet to come.”

In recent years, Valero has accumulated a large number of awards and honors, including being No. 1 on Forbes magazine’s list of the Platinum 400 Best Big Companies in America in 2004 and fourth on BusinessWeek’s list of the 50 best-performing companies on the S&P 500. Valero was also on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Managed Companies this year, and has been named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” in each of the last five years it has been eligible — including ranking 23rd overall and third among large employers in 2005. In fact, in 2005 Valero was named to so many of Fortune’s lists of top rankings that the magazine made it one of its elite Blue Ribbon Companies.

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