Analyst Says Western Refining's Strength Attributed to Yesterday's Agreement with HollyFrontier; Refiners Across the Board are Down

HollyFrontier Corporation HFC yesterday announced plans to expand capacity at its 31,000 barrel per day Woods Cross, Utah refinery to 45,000 bpd with an expected completion in late 2014. The expansion scope includes the relocation / revamp of crude, fluid catalytic cracking, and polymerization units from a subsidiary of Western Refining Inc.'s WNR Bloomfield, NM refinery to Woods Cross as well an expansion of the Woods Cross diesel hydrotreater and investment in associated utilities and offsites. HFC has signed a definitive agreement for the purchase of the Bloomfield units with Western Refining. HFC expects incremental yields from the expansion project to be approximately 60% gasoline and 40% diesel. The Company expects the cost of this expansion to be approximately $225 million. The Company also expects that this expansion will have a payback period of less than two years. View story here.