Chevron's Hawaii Assets Have Worldwide Appeal

HONOLULU — Chevron Corp.'s Hawaii retail and refinery operations are drawing eyes from around the globe. 

According to Pacific Business News, the assets are getting interest from companies as far away as the Philippines and South Korea. Negotiations are still ongoing; however, Korea-based GS Energy has dropped out of the running.

San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron put out feelers for its Hawaii assets in September. These assets include its refinery at Campbell Industrial Park, a storage terminal, 61 service stations and pipelines. Chevron has operated within the Aloha State for 125 years, as CSNews Online previously reported.

Al Chee, spokesman for Chevron Hawaii, told PBN that its solicitation process continues, and that there has not been any decision made by the company to sell any or all of its assets. "The process is to determine what we should do," he said. "No decision has been made either way."

A deal was anticipated to be completed in the third quarter of this year, according to the chairman of Chevron Corp.

As the news outlet reported, others showing interest in buying Chevron's Hawaii operations include members of the Delgado family of the Philippines, who have been in the petroleum industry since the 1940s, and Texas-based Par Petroleum Corp., which owns Hawaii Independent Energy, the firm operating the state's largest refinery.

Houston-based Kayden Higgins, which recently hired former Hawaii Independent Energy CEO Bill Haywood as its president of refining operations, also has shown interest, PBN reported.

Chevron has contracted Deutsche Bank to lead the process to determine the level of interest there might be for possible buyers. A source previously told PBN that the Hawaii operations could sell for between $75 million and $300 million. But any possible buyer would have to invest quite a bit to bring Chevron's Kapolei refinery, the smaller of the two oil refineries in Hawaii, up to par with environmental regulations.