By Janet McGurty
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Small, independent refiner Alon USA said on Tuesday it would be interested in buying more refineries in the United States if they met the company's criteria.
Alon USA President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Morris told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York that his company would be interested in buying certain refineries, citing those in the Rockies and the Midwest.
Morris also said refineries that processed the cheaper priced heavy crudes were more appealing than those that ran the lighter, sweeter -- and more expensive -- grades.
"We like heavy. One attribute I like better than another and that's cheap," Morris said.
Morris, a former refinery manager turned CEO, said the company had studied the refineries in the United States and was looking for those that also were fairly complex or could be made fairly complex to produce a high percentage of cleaner burning fuels.
Morris said he looked at operating costs as opposed to margins, because they were controllable.
In August 2006, Alon, which is 72 percent owned by Alon Israel Oil Co., closed on the purchase of two small refineries in California that it subsequently combined into one now called the Paramount refinery.
"We bought them from two independent owners, put them together and operate them as one," he said, adding Alon is now in the process of upgrading both the capacity and complexity of that refinery. Continued...
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