Memo: Big West could sell this summer
| Wednesday, May 13 2009 07:34 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, May 13 2009 07:39 PM
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The sun sets behind the Big West refinery on Rosedale Highway.
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The owner of Big West refinery in Bakersfield expects to sell the plant this summer, according to an internal memo that some suggest may be overly optimistic.
The May 4 memo, said to have been issued by top management at Utah-based Flying J Inc., states that interest in the refinery "has been good, but there is much work to do," in part because of the company's cumbersome bankruptcy case.
When the memo came up Wednesday in a meeting at the Rosedale Highway refinery, some in attendance expressed worries that workers laid off from jobs at the refinery would find hope in the document and stop looking for work elsewhere, union official Ed Huhn said.
"One of the people at the meeting (Wednesday) said that they'd be doing good to get it all done by November," Huhn said.
Court papers filed by Flying J indicate the company hoped to sell the refinery within six months of the start of the marketing period, which began in early April, said attorney John W. Kim, who works for the Los Angeles law firm of Nossaman LLP and represents a number of creditors in Flying J's bankruptcy case. That would translate to a sale this fall.
But it looks unlikely that the sale will take place by the end of this year, Kim said in an interview late last month.
A spokesman for Flying J said the company has made no announcement about the timing of Big West's sale. He was unable to provide further information.
At Wednesday's meeting at the refinery, Huhn said managers referred to a list of 113 groups that have expressed interest in the refinery. That list has been narrowed to about 30 "serious" investors, he said.
One outfit to make the short list, Huhn said, is Alon, a multibillion-dollar Israeli company whose U.S. subsidiary owns and operates refineries in Long Beach and Paramount, as well as Texas and Oregon. Alon also sells gasoline at stations across the South, Southwest and Western United States.
Alon representatives recently spent a day touring the plant with top managers, Huhn said.
An Alon representative could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Big West ceased refining operations in January after it was unable to secure a steady supply of crude from oil producers skittish about Flying J's Dec. 22 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. More than 175 plant workers have been laid off in the wake of the bankruptcy filing.
