Shell Anacortes Refinery


Shell Oil Products US, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, operates the Puget Sound Refinery located on March Point outside of Anacortes, WA. The plant is the largest taxpayer in Skagit County and one of the county's largest employers. The refinery has a 145,000 b/d capacity, making it the 52nd largest in the USA, in 2015, with facilities that include a delayed coker, fluid catalytic cracker, polymerization unit and alkylation units. Based on the secondary processing units in place, the facility likely follows a 3-2-1 crack spread. Shell’s refinery produces three grades of gasoline, fuel oil, diesel fuel, propane and butane. This plant is currently the only refinery in Washington state unable to accommodate tight oil via rail. The permitting process is currently underway for the proposed 60,000 b/d unloading capacity of the East Gate Rail Project.
The Puget Sound Refinery was built by Texaco in 1957. Its initial 45,000 b/d capacity came online in 1958.
Prior to 1998 Shell Oil operated the Shell Anacortes Refinery. Shell and Texaco combined their refining and marketing operations, assets valued at $17 billion, in 1997. The joint business, Equilon Enterprises - later to become part of Motiva Enterprises, subsequently co-owned both refineries on March Point outside of Anacortes. Antitrust litigation accepted the deal under the condition that Shell sell its preexisting refinery. Tesoro, an independent Texas-based midstream and downstream company, won bidding for Shell's refinery at a $237 million, with an additional payment of $60 million for net working capital. Tesoro became Andeavor in 2017, and with Marathon Petroleum's purchase of Andeavor in 2018, the refinery is now known as the Marathon Anacortes Refinery.