Valero Energy Corp. Ein ´Kauf?

“We're excited about achieving another record-breaking year because it means we can help even more children in all of our communities,” said Bill Greehey, chairman of Valero. “We've taken the tournament to a whole new level, as our contribution makes the Valero Texas Open the third most charitable tournament on the PGA TOUR. That's saying a lot especially considering that the Texas Open was at the bottom of the PGA TOUR's rankings with a $500,000 charitable contribution the year before we signed on as the title sponsor,” he added.

The biggest contributor to the Valero Texas Open's fundraising success was Valero's own charity tournament, the Benefit for Children Golf Classic, which is held in conjunction with the Valero Texas Open. This year's Benefit for Children raised $4.25 million of the total $5.35 million, which is more than $1 million over last year's record donation. Nearly 300 children's charities located in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean in communities where Valero has major operations will benefit from these proceeds.

“Everyone, from our employees and business partners to the volunteers and spectators, can take great pride in the important role they played in helping hundreds of disadvantaged children in the Port Arthur area,” said Greehey. “And, because all of these recipients were nominated and selected by our refinery employees, these donations are especially meaningful.”

"In September, Memphis produced $129 million, No. 2 in profitability of all 18 of our refineries," Greehey said.

"Valero's got a lot of capital money, and they're looking to spend some here," said mechanical engineer Walt Fisher. "Some people are still taking a wait-and-see attitude, but I think things are better already."

Understand the reticence: Since 1998, the Memphis refinery has had four owners, including Williams and Mapco before Premcor.

Monday, the plant will close a $60 million revamping meant to improve reliability, safety and profitability. The work will be done by about 2,000 contractors, working day and night.

Over the course of the year, Valero will spend another $100 million on upgrades to produce higher grade gasoline and diesel fuel, said chief executive officer Bill Kleese.

"We've got $3.4 billion in our capital expenditure budget for this year. We'll spend $160 million of that in Memphis."

Valero's profits nearly tripled in the fourth quarter, going to $1.35 billion from $485 million a year ago.

It also processed 3 million barrels a day in the quarter for the first time in the company's history.

The company benefited from higher product margins, induced by the storms and refinery shutdowns, but also from the Premcor acquisition, which added about 900,000 barrels to its daily production of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

The addition "bumped us over the top," Kleese said, "from third or fourth to No. 1."

Since 1997, Valero has added 17 refineries through acquisitions.

"We're buyers, not sellers," Kleese said. "We're buyers and improvers."

Because of the warm winter, stock prices are off more than $10 a share since Feb. 1, closing Thursday at $53.82, down from a 52-week high of $63.70.