BP To Sell Stations, Ferndale Refinery

Tosco Corp. has agreed to buy BP Oil Co.'s Ferndale refinery, 132 service stations in Washington and Oregon, and other BP facilities for about $175 million.

BP had operated the refinery since 1989, after buying it from Mobil Oil for $152.6 million to enter the West Coast market.

Tosco, based in Stamford, Conn., has been a wholesaler to independent marketer of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and heating oil. It operates two refineries, the Avon refinery in the San Francisco Bay area, and the Bayway in Linden, N.J. Sales last year topped $1.8 billion.

The deal with BP calls for Tosco to pay $125 million for the properties and $50 million for the inventories. Besides the stations and the refinery, it will buy two distribution terminals and five undeveloped sites.

Tosco said it will continue to market under the BP brand in Oregon and Washington and have the option of purchasing Alaskan North Slope crude oil from BP to supply the refinery. BP is half-owner of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

Cleveland-based BP also will get a cut of future profits of the refinery if market conditions improve over the next five years, up to a cumlative $150 million, the company said.

Sale of the refinery "allows BP to concentrate its resources on its key Ohio and Southeastern operations," said Steve Percy, BP

president.