The new owners of St. Paul Park's oil refinery will sink another $45 million into the facility this fall in addition to the $100 million announced last year.
Western Refining recently completed a buyout of the refinery's most recent owner, Northern Tier Energy. Western plans a $45 million "turnaround" at the St. Paul Park refinery during the third quarter, a top company executive said during an earnings conference call this week.
Turnarounds are major maintenance and renovation projects that occur every few years at refineries. Western's upcoming turnaround at St. Paul Park will cost $45 million and result in 40 days of downtime.
The El Paso, Texas-based company says 900 to 1,000 outside contractors will be working on the job in addition the refinery's employees.
Last year, Arizona-based Northern Tier said it planned $100 million in upgrades at the refinery, aimed at boosting production and improving its ability to process crude oil from North Dakota. Historically, the refinery has relied on Canadian petroleum.
Western Refining in 2013 acquired the general partnership interest in Northern Tier and 38 percent of Northern Tier's limited partnership interests. In June, Western completed the purchase of Northern Tier for $1.5 billion.
Western now owns the SuperAmerica retail gas business, which has long been supplied by the St. Paul Park refinery.
