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Russian firm buys Chevron site |
Posted at Charleston's Home Port by Mike Terry
Jan. 11, 2008
Categorized in: Charleston, SC - General
Russian firm buys Chevron site for $20 million
Delphin Group USA, the North American division of a Russian petroleum firm, has paid $20 million for a North Charleston industrial site formerly owned by Chevron Corp.
The Virginia Avenue site, which has changed hands numerous times over the past several decades, and which most recently went on the market in September for an asking price of $26 million, is expected to be operational by February, according to published reports.
Delphin Group USA plans to ship various oils to the facility, where they will be mixed, bottled and prepared for sale in both domestic and overseas markets.
At full production, the plant is expected to employ nearly 200 workers and manufacture 10 million gallons of petroleum products annually.
According to promotional materials provided by Colliers Keenan Inc., the Charleston-based industrial brokerage firm that handled the sale, various affiliates of Texaco Inc. owned the site between 1910 and 1998 when it was transferred to a joint venture between Texaco and the Shell Oil Co. know as Equilon Enterprises LLC.
In 2002, as part of the merger between Texaco and Chevron, Texaco sold its interest in the joint venture to Shell. Chevron USA subsequently purchased the property, but decided not to restart petroleum operations at the site, eliminating more than 70 jobs in the process.
Chevron interviewed a number of brokerage firms in June, selecting Colliers Keenan, which had recently sold the nearby Macalloy industrial site. Colliers Keenan’s charge was to sell the property by the end of 2007.
Several elements made the land attractive to Delfin, said Hagood Morrison, who handled the sale with Amanda Kitchen, also of Colliers Keenan.
These included the site’s deep water access on the Port of Charleston’s 45-foot shipping channel, the three rail spurs linking the site to both the Norfolk Southern and CSX rail service, the site’s highway access and the fact that an on-site maintenance crew kept the facility operationally ready even after the plant closed in late 2006.
Kitchen said the brokerage received more than 15 offers for the site resulting in more than 50 visits by prospective buyers.
Morrison said much of the interest came from producers of alternative fuels. At the end of the day, however, “the group which closed was in a similar business as Chevron, lube oil blending and distribution.”
The facility is Delfin Group USA’s first manufacturing plant in North America. Its parent company, Delfin Russia, operates plants in Moscow and Riga, which is adjacent to the Baltic Sea.
as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal
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1. RE: Russian firm buys Chevron site