Fwd: BIG WEST OIL REFINERY TO CLOSE IN BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA - ELIMINATING 290 JOBS

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from the BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN:

More layoffs — this time 84 — hit Big West refinery

By JOHN COX, Californian staff writer
jc...@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, Feb 11 2009 4:29 PM

Last Updated: Thursday, Feb 12 2009 7:16 AM

A third round of layoffs at Big West refinery will put another 84 employees out of work this week, the company said Wednesday.

Photos:

Photo by Casey Christie / The Californian

Large clouds loom over the Big West refinery on Rosedale Highway.

Photo by Casey Christie / Kern Business

The sun sets behind the Big West refinery on Rosedale Highway.

The layoffs, effective Thursday and Friday, follow the loss of 40 salaried management and staff positions last week, and 55 contracted positions early last month.

It was unclear whether still more job cuts were ahead. After last week’s layoffs, company spokeswoman Virginia Parker said the company expected to carry out additional layoffs over the next month. But on Wednesday she declined to say whether more layoffs lie ahead.

Union officials were in meetings with the company T uesday and Wednesday, and could not be reached for comment.

Until recently, the refinery employed some 150 hourly workers, as many as 100 salaried employees and about 40 contracted laborers, union official Ed Huhn said late last month.

The job losses result from the refinery’s inability to secure an adequate supply of crude oil after its parent company, Flying J Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Dec. 22.

Flying J announced last month that it was closing the plant indefinitely, even as it continues to work on other options including a sale of Big West.

One employee who lost his job this week, outside operator Randy Johnston, said he left his job at another refinery in town about two and a half years ago to work at Big West, where he was offered more money. Last year, he said, he earned about $84,000 at the refinery.

“I went to Flying J because, I thought, more money and security. And I definitely got the money,” he said.

He and other employees have expressed hope that the refinery will sell soon.

“Hopefully this will come back and help us rather than hurt u s,” Johnston said. “I’m hearing all sorts of things, and all we have to work on is speculation and rumor.”

A Delaware bankruptcy judge is scheduled to rule next week whether the company will be allowed to offer a companywide severance plan to employees it lays off. Parker has said workers let go at Big West will be given severance pay if the judge approves the proposal.

Refinery at a glance

1932: Refinery opens as Mohawk Oil Refinery.

1975: It’s purchased by Reserve Oil & Gas.

1980: Getty Oil takes over.

1984: Texaco buys it.

1998: Texaco and Shell agree to operate it as Equilon Enterprises LLC.

2001: The Federal Trade Commission requires Texaco to divest its interest following its merger with Chevron. Shell continues to operate it.

2003: Shell announces plans to shut it down.

2004: California attorney general urges Shell to sell, not close, it.

2005: It’s purchased by Flying J Inc. and operates under subsidiary Big West of California.

April 2007: Controversy breaks out over plans to expand the refinery and use a dangerous chemical. Big West later says it will use a safer form of the chemical. The county fines the facility for venting gases into the air that made people sick.
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May 2007: County cancels public hearings on the expansion until the environmental report is reviewed by refinery experts.

October 2008: County approves the expansion, allowing work to begin as soon as January 2009.

December 2008: Flying J runs into financial trouble and files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Some oil producers, upset that they won’t be paid immediately for past deliveries to Big West, withhold their oil.

January 2009: Flying J says refining activity at Big West has been put on hold pending 10 days of maintenance work. Industry executives say the temporary halt to refining was forced by the plant’s inability to purchase enough oil to operate normally. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sends a letter to state Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr. airing allegations that Shell Oil Co. has withheld in order to shut the plant.

Sources: Big West of California, news archives

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