Chevron Selling Asphalt Refineries -- Operations Being Cut In Restructuring Plan

Chevron's asphalt refining plant at Point Wells, near Richmond Beach, and another in Portland will be sold as part of a company restructuring.

The company's major ocean terminal facilities at Point Wells and a distribution center for gasoline, diesel oil and aviation fuel that is served by truck and rail terminal also may be sold or closed.

The Richmond Beach refinery, operated by Chevron since 1912, employs 20 full-time workers and seven part time. The refinery produces about 5,500 barrels a day and is one of several operations at the 150-acre total site.

"We are looking at the entire operation, including some vacant land we might sell there," said Bob Osmundson, Chevron public affairs manager for the Pacific Northwest. Chevron might jointly operate the terminal and related distribution center if a partner can be found, or it might consolidate its operations with other facilities, he said. He said 22 people work there. The terminal was built in 1949.

The decision to sell the refining plants is part of the company's long-term strategy to sell non-core operations if they have greater value to other companies.

Chevron's asphalt business, which serves the roofing and paving markets, is one of the largest in the nation with $250 million in annual sales. the company said. Those sales represent less than 1 percent of the company's $37 billion total in 1992. The Portland operation has 30 employees, Osmundson said.

"These are profitable businesses and we fully expect to find viable buyers who value them more than we do," said Jim Polk, general manager of the asphalt business unit of Chevron USA Products Co. in San Francisco.

Chevron managers who lose jobs because of a sale would be able to participate in a company redeployment program, Osmundson said.

If no offers are received, Osmundson said the company could keep operating the refineries.

Chevron is also selling East Coast terminals and related assets in Lyons and Troy, N.Y.; Portland, Conn.; Salisbury, N.C.; Baltimore, Md. and Tampa, Fla. The company said Chevron seeks to sell them to a buyer who will agree to a processing arrangement with the company's 80,000-barrel-per-day asphalt refinery at Perth Amboy, N.J., which will be retained.

Chevron also will quit marketing asphalt in Northern California by the end of the year. No changes are planned for Chevron's asphalt operations in Hawaii or the Southwest, which are integrated with gasoline refineries in Honolulu and El Paso.

Chevron also recently sold its Ortho Consumer Products business and its Central American marketing businesses as part of its restructuring.

In late 1990, the Point Wells terminal was the site of a 4,000-gallon oil spill that damaged beaches on both sides of Puget Sound. The company was fined $35,000 by the State Department of Ecology.