Crown Central to Sell C-Stores, Refineries

BALTIMORE -- Crown Central Petroleum Corp., which operates 323 convenience stores under the Crown, Fast Fare and Zippy Mart brands, yesterday said it was looking to sell most of its convenience store assets, including two oil refineries with a combined capacity of 152,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Privately-held Crown said it has retained Washington-based Park Avenue Equity Management, LLC to assist it in the sale.

In a statement, the Baltimore-based refiner/marketer said weak refining margins and new competition weighted in on the decision.

"While this was a hard decision, we believe that, in view of the difficult environment faced by independent refiners and retailers during the past year-and-a-half, it is the right thing to do," Crown President and CEO Frank Rosenberg said in a statement.

Independent refiners, such as Valero Corp., Sunoco Inc. or Premcor, headed by former Tosco Corp. Chief Executive Tom O'Malley, are considered early front-runners for the properties rather than large integrated oil companies.

Big Oil companies like Shell Oil and ConocoPhillips in the past month have takes steps to reduce their direct involvement with convenience store operations. Shell said it was looking for multi-site operators to run in-store operations and ConocoPhillips announced a plan last week to divest hundreds of stores.

Crown owns two Texas refineries, a 100,000 bpd refinery in Pasadena and a 52,000 bpd plant in Tyler. Besides the refineries, Crown operates 323 Crown gasoline stations and convenience stores in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States and 10 product terminals along the Colonial, Plantation and Texas Eastern product pipelines.

Analysts said environmental regulations calling for lower sulfur levels in oil products such as diesel and gasoline have cut into profit levels for oil refiners.