The refinery now covers 750 acres and employs about 650 workers and 550 contractors.
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The 750-acre refinery has been under scrutiny by local and state regulators since a massive explosion at the facility in February touched off the equivalent of an 1.7 natural disaster.
PBF says the refinery will be restored to full working order prior to close, and expects the deal to be immediately accretive to earnings.
“The sale results from a strategic assessment of the site and how it fits with our refining portfolio”, Jerry Wascom, president of Exxon Mobil refining and supply, said in a prepared statement.
PBF, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, has expanded its capacity by about 60 percent this year and will be able to process 900,000 barrels of crude a day after it closes on the 155,000 bpd Torrance plant in the second quarter of 2016, the company said in a statement. “Exxon Mobil regularly adjusts its portfolio through investment, restructuring or divestment consistent with overall global and regional business strategies”.
The plant secures PBF’s first toe-hold in the often-lucrative California market.
The transaction follows PBF’s purchase earlier this year of the Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery which Exxon owned jointly with Petroleos de Venezuela.
In August, regulators from Cal/OSHA fined ExxonMobil $566,600 and issued more than a dozen workplace violations for the incident, including a few deemed especially grave because the agency “found that Exxon did not take action to eliminate known hazardous conditions at the refinery and intentionally failed to comply with state safety standards”.
The oil and gas giant initially was hoping to increase gasoline production as soon as late September.
A preliminary report by the South Coast Air Quality Management District determined the blast was caused by over-pressurization in the electrostatic precipitator – an air-pollution-control system. The hearing delay was the third one and no new date has yet been set.
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In February, a huge explosion crippled operations at the Torrance plant, disrupting a portion of California’s gasoline supply.
