UtahRails.net Copyright 2000-2008 Don Strack

Utah's Oil Industry and Utah's Railroads

Compiled by Don Strack

This page was last updated on August 25, 2007.

(...a work in progress; research continues.)

Introduction

Prior to World War II, Union Pacific's principal customers between Utah's two largest cities were sugar-beet factories at Layton and West Ogden. Since World War II, its principal customers have been the largest petroleum refining complex in the Intermountain West. In 1948 all four refineries began receiving most of their crude by pipeline from the Rangely Field at Rangely, Colorado. While the UP had lost the crude-oil haul, it was not a total loss, since the UP owned 76 percent of the Rangely Field. Discovered in 1945, UP's share of Rangely's production zoomed to 3.6 million barrels in 1951, but faded to 2 million barrels by 1962. The UP sold its share of the Rangely Field for $62 million in 1963. The UP still has large stakes in western Wyoming and northeastern Utah oil fields. Utah is usually thought of as a coal state, not an oil state, but since 1960 its oil fields and its refineries have usually produced more Btu's of energy than Utah's coal mines. The UP is usually thought of as a railroad, not an oil company, but since World War II its oil and gas wells have contributed from one-fourth to one-half of the company's net income. (Union Pacific Salt Lake Route, by Mark W. Hemphill, Boston Mills, 1995, page 131)

Oil was first discovered in Utah as early as 1891, but large-scale commercial operations did not start until September 1948 with the discovery of a well in Ashley Valley in the Unitah Basin that produced 300 barrels of oil per day. (More early history here; see also Utah's Black Gold, page 292)

It is believed that Utah's natural petroleum was first used in San Juan County. Oil seeps were discovered in the Bluff area and the oil used for various purposes by early settlers. The first well was drilled in 1908 by the San Francisco-San Juan Oil Co. Immediately thereafter, a large number of wells were drilled. There were few showings of oil. By 1948, 146 wells had been put down. Discovery of the rich Aneth field by the Texas Co. in January of 1956 triggered a huge exploration boom that soon made San Juan the leading oil producing county of the state. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 72)

Unitah County's first oil well was drilled near the Grand County line, north of Brown Cliffs, in 1900 by John Pope. There was no showing of gas or oil. 40 wells were drilled from 1900 to 1948, with minor production in 1908-1910, but no good commercial discoveries were made. The first real commercial producer, Equity Oil Co.'s No. 1 in Ashley Valley, started a Utah oil boom in 1948 that has continued up to this writing (1967). Prior to 1958, Uintah County was the state's leading oil producer. However, the completion of two crude pipelines connecting San Juan County with Texas and California refining centers boosted that county into first place. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 85)

Interest in locating oil in Utah came from 1933 discoveries by Chevron of commercial quantities of oil in the Rangely field just across the border in northwestern Colorado. (More information) Within seven years after the Ashley Valley field came on line in 1948, there were more producing fields in the Unitah Basin, including Roosevelt (1949), Red Wash (1951), Walker Hollow (1953), and Bluebell (1955). By 1967, there were 16 producing oil fields, with 321 producing wells, and another 352 producing wells that had been drilled but were capped.

Salt Lake City Refinery (Amoco)

Utah Oil Company was incorporated on June 3, 1909, and was the first commercially successful petroleum company in the state. The early refinery was located on a small quarter acre north of Salt Lake City and produced seven barrels per day of kerosene, greases, and lubricating oils. In 1917, half interest in Utah Oil was bought by Midwest Refining Co.

Standard Oil of Indiana took ownership of Midwest Oil in July 1921, including Midwest's half ownership of Utah Oil Company (Utoco). Standard later acquired 75 percent of Utah Oil, and in the 1950s, that percentage was increased to 100 percent. Utoco relied upon crude oil delivered by Union Pacific in tank cars until it built a pipeline to Wyoming oil fields in 1939.

Utah Oil Company's products included Vico motor oils and greases and Pep gasolines. Pep gasoline later became Utoco gasoline, a brand that became familiar throughout Utah and Idaho, and later, in eastern Nevada, western Wyoming, and eastern Oregon and Washington.

Standard of Indiana changed marketing statagies in 1961-1962 when it started using the American brand name, combining several brand names from across the western U.S., including its Utoco brand. On January 1, 1963, Utah Oil Compnay was officially absorbed into the parent Standard Oil Company of Indiana, which changed its name to American Oil Company (Amoco). (Utah's Black Oil, page 304)

Utah Oil Company was owned as a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana. In 1946 when the parent company decided on a common logo, combining the oval shape from subsidiary Amoco and the torch from Indiana Standard, Utah Oil Refining became Utoco, and other subsidiaries Indiana Standard, Standard Service, and Nebraska Standard all simply became Standard. At the same time, the international sales subsidiary became Amoco. In late 1960, the parent company, also known as Indiana Standard, decided to tweak its marketing strategy. The subsidiaries Amoco and Utoco became the American brand, leaving the Standard brand to the midwest and the American brand for the rest of the United States. Between its Standard and American brands, with the torch-and-oval sign, Indiana Standard was the first "Standard" to expand its operations to the lower 48 contiguous states. In 1974, the American brand was changed to Amoco. (Source)

Amoco's retail brand was "Rainbo", but apparently just for the approximately 39 retail outlets in the Salt Lake City area.

Amoco Oil Company was one of three subsidiaries of Amoco Corporation, an Indiana corporation that served as a holding company for all of the former Standard Oil of Indiana's interests in exploration, production, and distribution of petroleum products, including chemicals.

Wikipedia Amoco article

Tesoro Corporation came to Utah in September 2001 when it bought the interests of Amoco Oil Co., a subsidiary of BP-Amoco. (SEC information) (Press release) $677 million purchase that included refineries in Utah, North Dakota. Tesoro had previously bought refinery facilities in Hawaii.

Tesoro sold off its small crude oil exploration and production business in 1999 because it was clear the company would never have the scale to compete against the much larger major oil companies. At about the same time, the large comapnies were in a merger frenzy and government antitrust regulators were requiring newly merged companies to spin off some of their newly combined assets, including refineries at below-market prices. Tesoro began buying them and by May 2006 owned six facilities in Alaska, California, Hawaii, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington State.

Wikipedia Tesoro article

Salt Lake City Refinery (Chevron)

The Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery began operation in 1948 after the discovery of the Rangely crude oil field in Western Colorado. The refinery has run continuously as a 24-hour-per-day operation since startup in 1948, and currently employs about 200 workers. Crudeoil, the refinery’s major raw material, comes from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Canada. Primary products produced at the facility include gasoline and other fuels, such as Jet-A, JP-8, and low-sulfur diesel. Minor products include stove oil, propane, and petroleum coke. Several small processing plants compose the fully integrated Salt Lake City Refinery. Each of these plants plays an important role in making finished products. Each of the plants processes light hydrocarbons, such as propane, butane, and pentane. (Source)

Chevron operates two pipelines to its Salt Lake City refinery. One comes from Kimball Junction in Summit County, Utah, and the other comes from Rangely, Colorado.

In 2005, the City of North Salt Lake renewed its efforts to annex the land that the Chevron refinery sits on in southern Davis County. Several times in the 1960s and 1980s, the city tried to annex the land, but Chevron always put forth efforst to block the action, due mostly to the 70 percent higher tax rate the city has over unincorporated county tax rates. (Deseret News, January 7, 2005)

Chevron operates a pipeline between Salt Lake City and Boise.

Wikipedia Chevron article

North Salt Lake Refinery (Flying J)

The Flying J refinery was built by Western States Refining Company in 1949 in response to a new law in 1946 that made government oil available to small independent refineries. The refinery's initial production came from the Rangely-Salt Lake City pipeline, and its rated capacity was 2500 barrels per day. By 1963, that capacity had been increased to 7500 barrels per day, and the refinery was owned by Frontier Refining Company, which operated the refinery as the Beeline Refinery. (Utah's Black Gold, page 307)

Western States Refining Company sold its petroleum products as the Cowboy brand. After the refinery was sold to Frontier, the brand was changed to Beeline.

Frontier (?) sold to Husky Oil in (?). (1965?)

Husky Oil was out of Canada, and in December 1985, sold all of its U.S. assets. The Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, and Cody refineries were sold to Flying J, along with Husky's pipeline from Wyoming to Nebraska, and 550 Husky retail outlets and 40 Husky gasoline stations and truck stops. Husky had merged with Marathon Oil in 1984.

"In 1986, Flying J made its next major move, more than tripling its annual sales with the $70 million purchase of the U.S. refining and retail operations from Canada's Husky Oil Ltd. The purchase included a 35,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Cheyenne, Wyoming; a pipeline stretching from Wyoming to Nebraska; and a refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah with a capacity of 14,000 barrels per day, as well as a closed refinery, capable of 15,000 barrels per day, in Cody, Wyoming. The purchase also gave Flying J some 550 retail outlets and 40 gasoline stations and truck stops under the Husky brand name. The acquisition made Flying J the largest independent oil company in the northwest." (Source)

From Big West Oil's web site:

Big West Oil LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Flying J Inc. Big West operates a 31,000 barrel per day refinery located in North Salt Lake, Utah. The refinery processes crude oils produced in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Canada. Big West produces a full range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gases, wax products, and fuel oil. These products are marketed in Utah, Southern Idaho, Western Wyoming, Western Colorado, and Eastern Nevada.

Through its subsidiary, Big West of California LLC, the company owns and operates a 68,000 barrel per day refinery in Bakersfield, California. The refinery is supplied by local California crude oils produced in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles Basin. Big West of California primarily markets finished motor fuel products in the Bakersfield and Fresno areas. The refinery is also a large supplier of gas oil products to other refiners.

Woods Cross Refinery

On December 31, 1997, Inland Refining, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Inland Resources Inc., acquired from Crysen Refining, Inc. the oil refinery and related assets, inventory and receivables owned by Crysen in Woods Cross, Utah for a purchase price of $17.5 million. The Woods Cross Refinery is located on approximately 42 acres in Woods Cross, Utah. The Woods Cross Refinery has an overall crude capacity of approximately 12,500 barrels per day ("BPD"), but its current [1998] effective crude capacity is approximately 8,500 BPD due to the mix of crude feedstocks being processed. The Woods Cross Refinery does not have a catalytic cracker. Consequently, it is able to process approximately 30 percent of a barrel of the Company's Blax Wax crude into high end petroleum products (e.g., gasoline, diesel, military jet fuel) with the remaining approximately 70 percent being processed into low end petroleum products (e.g. waxes, tar, asphalt). The Woods Cross Refinery currently [1998] processes Wyoming Sweet, Black Wax, Yellow Wax, Nevada Asphaltic, California Santa Maria, and Canadian crudes, and its products produced include all grades of motor gasoline, kerosene, #1 diesel, #2 diesel, waxes, heavy vacuum gas oil, road asphalt, air blown asphalt and polymerized asphalt. The refinery has the capability to receive and ship crude and product by rail car and truck, receives crude oil via the Amoco and Chevron pipelines, and ships crude and product via the Chevron pipeline. The refinery has a 485,000 barrel capacity of tankage on site. (Source)

Inland and Flying J announced an intended merger in January 1999. The merger was called off in May 1999. (Deseret News, January 22, 1999; August 29, 1999)

Inland Refining, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Inland Resources, was sold to Silver Eagle Refining, Inc., on January 31, 2000. Inland Refining owned the Woods Cross Refinery and a nonoperating refinery located in Roosevelt, Utah. The Woods Cross Refinery was originally purchased on December 31, 1997 for $22.9 million and the Roosevelt refinery was originally purchased on September 16, 1998 for $2.25 million. The sales price was $500,000, plus certain assets, liabilities and obligations. In May 2000, Inland signed a letter of intent to purchase the North Salt Lake refinery of Flying J, but the sale was not completed. (Source)

Woods Cross Refinery (Phillips 66)

The Phillips 66 refinery in Woods Cross was constructed in 1932 by the newly organized William Yeates Company, with a reported capacity of 1000 barrels per day. The refinery used a newly developed method of cracking crude petroleum, but upon intial operation in late 1932, there were problems. The refinery's first supplier was Skelly Oil of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which also helped the refinery overcome its refining problems. Soon after operations of the refinery began, the Yeates company changed its name to Wasatch Oil Refining Company. The Wasatch company expanded with a new refinery (Idaho Refining Co.) in Pocatello, Idaho in 1937, and another in Spokane, Wash., (Inland Empire Refineries) in 1938. In 1947-1948, Phillips Petroleum bought the interests and assets of Wasatch Oil Company, including the Woods Cross refinery. At the time that Phillips bought the refinery, it had a capacity of 4200 barrels per day, and by 1963, it had expanded to 15,500 barrels per day. Most of the refinery's crude was delivered by way of the Salt Lake Pipe Line Company's pipeline from Rangely, Colorado. (Utah's Black Gold, page 305)

Phillips, based in Bartlesville, Okla., bought the Salt Lake refinery in 1947. It is the smallest of the company's 10 refineries and supplies about 13 percent of the retail market in northern Utah and southern Idaho. (Deseret News, June 26, 2002)

In 1991 Phillips announced that they were considering selling the Woods Cross refinery. At that time, the refinery employed 129 people, and the associated terminals and retail gas stations employed another 118 people. The Woods Cross refinery had a reported capacity of 25,000 BCD, which was eight percent of the company's national refining capacity. Included in company assets were a truck loading rack in Woods Cross, 50 percent ownership of two product terminals in Boise and Burley, Idaho, and the company's 12 retail outlets in the Salt Lake City area. Phillips acquired the Woods Cross refinery in 1948 as part of its purchase of Wasatch Oil Company. (Deseret News, June 2, 1991)

By late 1991, Phillips Petroleum Co. was number 28 in the list of global oil companies. "Phillips, with a relatively high debt burden, wants to sell at least $500 million in assets over three years, and has already sold three tankers. It tried earlier this year to sell its Woods Cross refinery in Utah, but took it off the market because the company did not receive any acceptable offers." (New York Times, December 24, 1991)

On June 1, 2003, Holly Corporation acquired from ConocoPhillips the Woods Cross Refinery located in Woods Cross, Utah, approximately 10 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah. Holly also acquired related assets that include petroleum products terminals in Spokane, Wash., and in Boise and Burley, Idaho, along with retail service stations located in Utah and Wyoming. The total cash purchase price was reported as $58.3 million, and was part of the divestiture of assets to improve competition after the Conoco Phillips merger.

The Woods Cross Refinery is being operated by Holly Refining & Marketing Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Holly Corporation. The Woods Cross refinery has a crude oil capacity of 25,000 barrels per day, and processes primarily sweet crude oils into high value light products. For the period from June 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003, the Woods Cross Refinery processed approximately 22,500 barrels per day of crude oil.

The Woods Cross Refinery currently obtains its supply of crude oil primarily from suppliers in Canada, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado via common carrier pipeline, which runs from the Canadian border through Wyoming to the refinery. Its primary markets include Utah, Idaho and Wyoming where it distributes its products largely through a network of Phillips 66 branded marketers. The purchase of the Woods Cross Refinery also included certain pipelines and other transportation assets used in connection with the refinery, and a 10-year exclusive license to market fuels under the Phillips brand in the states of Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. The retail stores are branded as "Kicks 66".

The majority of the light refined products produced at the Woods Cross Refinery currently are delivered to customers in the Salt Lake City area via the truck rack at the refinery. Remaining volumes are shipped via pipelines owned by ChevronTexaco Corporation to numerous terminals, including the Company’s terminals at Boise and Burley, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. The Holly Corporation estimates that the other four refineries in Utah that compete with its Woods Cross Refinery have a combined capacity to process approximately 140,000 BPD of crude oil. These five refineries collectively supply an estimated 70 percent of the gasoline and distillate products consumed in the states of Utah and Idaho, with the remainder imported from refineries in Wyoming and Montana via the Pioneer Pipeline owned jointly by Sinclair and ConocoPhillips.

Wikipedia Phillips 66 article

Holly Corporation web site

Pipelines

Major Oil Pipelines:

The first oil pipeline in Utah was completed in 1939 by Utah Oil Company (later Amoco) and built to transport oil from wells in Colorado and Wyoming, to its refinery in Salt Lake City. In 1948, the Salt Lake Pipe Line Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California (later Chevron), built a pipeline from the Rangley field in Coloroado, to its refinery at the south end of Davis County. In 1951, a branch extension of this later pipeline was added to bring oil to Salt Lake City from the Red Wash and Walker Hollow fields in Unitah Basin. By the early 1960s, the Rangely-Salt Lake City pipeline had been improved and its capacity was put at 72,000 barrels per day. (Utah's Black Gold, pages 301-303)

In 1963, it was estimated that 60 percent of the production of the four large refineries were sold in neighboring states. Pipelines had served the inbound shipment of crude oil very well, and common carrier pipelines continue to give the Utah refineries access to out-of-state markets. These common carrier pipelines carry a wide range of products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and all sorts of other refinery products, all in quantites of thousands of barrels per day.

In 1950 a common carrier pipeline was completed north from the refineries to Pasco, Washington, a distance of 569 miles. In 1963, this pipeline ahd a reported daily capacity of 15,000 barrels. The pipeline's owner, Salt Lake Pipe Line Compnay, continued to expand capacity and in 1953, extended the pipelien further north to Spokane. In 1963 the capacity was put at 56,000 barrels per day. In a railroad-related side note, when it was constructed in 1950, the Salt Lake Pipe Line was laid along the abandoned right of way of the original Central Pacific transcontinental railroad between Hot Springs, just north of Ogden, north to Corinne. (Utah's Black Gold, page 307)

Link to Testimony about pipelines in Utah, Wyoming and Pacific Northwest

Conoco

In 1952 Continental Oil Company (Conoco) built the Pioneer Pipeline as a joint venture with Sinclair Oil Corporation. The initial capacity was 10,000 barrels per day.

Pioneer Pipe Line Co., a company providing one-third of the motor fuels used in northern Utah, is expanding and will increase the available gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel in the Salt Lake area by 25,000 barrels per day. The present capacity is 40,000 barrels per day. The pipeline carries fuels to North Salt Lake terminals from the Sinclair Oil refinery at Sinclair, Wyo., east of Rawlins. Refineries in Billings, Mont., and Casper, Wyo., through connecting pipelines, also use the Pioneer pipeline to carry fuel to North Salt Lake.The expansion is possible by a combination of increased pump horsepower, introduction of a flow improver additive and modifications to the pipeline. The initial phase will increase the capacity by 15,000 barrels per day. (Deseret News, August 9, 1996)

In 2000, Conoco and Sinclair Oil Corporation, joint owners, expanded the Pioneer Pipeline between Sinclair, Wyo. and Croydon, Utah, a project that was to enable the line to transport an additional million gallons a day into Salt Lake City. Conoco was then the operating partner of the line. The expansion project was announced in August 2000. Conoco and Sinclair were to invest more than $70 million to expand the line's capacity from two to three million gallons per day. The expansion used the pipeline's existing corridor parallel to Interstate Highway 80 from Sinclair, Wyo., into Utah. The pipeline transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Sinclair's refinery in Sinclair and from refineries owned by Conoco and others in Billings, Mont., by way of the Sinclair refinery.

The expanded pipeline carried its first increased product load in mid February 2001. (Deseret News, February 17, 2001)

Conoco owned more than 50 percent of the Pioneer Pipeline. The Pioneer Pipeline carries light petroleum products to Northern Utah. Conoco owned more than 50 percent of the terminal connected to the Pioneer Pipeline. Conoco operates the Pioneer Pipeline and connected terminals. By virtue of its majority stake and operatorship, Conoco controls the pricing of light petroleum products on the Pioneer Pipeline.

Phillips and Conoco were direct horizontal competitors in Northern Utah. Phillips owns a refinery and Conoco owns a pipeline that provide bulk supplies of light petroleum products into Northern Utah. Together, Phillips and Conoco accounted for about 25 percent of the light petroleum products bulk supply capacity in Northern Utah.

As part of the 2002 merger of Phillips and Conoco, Conoco retained its pipeline and Phillips sold its Woods Cross refienery.

Current Production

Refinery capacity as of mid 1990s:

As of 2000:

Utah oil fields have produced a total of 1.2 billion barrels. However, the 15 million barrels of production in 2000 was the lowest level in over 40 years and continued the steady decline that began in the mid-1980s. (Source)

As of 2000 (from Utah Industries of the Future):

Utah Petroleum Sector: At 483 million dollars value, the petroleum and coal products sector is a significant portion of Utah’s industrial product. Utah has 5 petroleum refineries with a total combined crude capacity of 158,500 barrels/day. The refineries received 48,492 thousand barrels of crude in 1997. Of this, 13,747 barrels were produced in Utah the rest from neighboring Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico. Utah’s refining capacity is about 1% of the total national capacity, but is significant for the region accounting for 29% of the PAD district IV operating capacity (EIA January 2000).

Utah Refineries: All five refineries are located near Salt Lake City. Utah’s refineries are small in comparison to the 200,000 — 500,000 bpd refineries in the big oil refining states of California, Louisiana, and Texas but they are typical for the mountain region. The largest Utah refinery is BP at 58,000 barrels/day followed by Chevron at 48,000. Phillips 66 and Big West have similar capacities — 25,000 and 24,000 respectively. BP recently announced its intention to sell the Salt Lake refinery, which employs about 190, along with similarly sized plants in North Dakota and Virginia.

Number of Active Fields/Wells: 10 fields/88 wells (Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, 2001).

As of 1988, Utah had the following refinery capacity (total 152,500 Barrels/Day):

As of 2005, Utah had the following refinery distillation capacity of 167,350 Barrels Per Calendar Day (BCD):

Whether mergers are mainly an effect of Big Oil's conservatism or an enabler, they're under more scrutiny now that oil prices are sky-high. The merger wave of 1998-2001 united Exxon with Mobil, Chevron with Texaco, BP with Amoco and Arco, Conoco with Phillips, and France's Total with PetroFina and Elf. Jon Meade Huntsman, founder of chemicals maker Huntsman LLC in Salt Lake City, recalls warning people that mergers would lead to high oil prices. He says costly oil is damaging the chemical, airline, and trucking industries while enriching a handful of giant companies. Says Huntsman: "We've got a monopoly that's in effect more dangerous than during the Rockefeller era" of a century ago. (Business Week On Line, June 21, 2004)

2006 rankings: (DOE web site)

Utah’s Role in the United States Petroleum Industry

Sources:

Harline, Osmond L. "Utah's Black Gold: The Petroleum Industry", Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 3, Summer 1963.

 

 

Creative Commons License Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict Valid CSS!