Amid balloons, tents, ribbons, speakers, blue skies, and lots of food, hundreds of people marked what had been advertised as a historic day for Yellowstone County – – and it was, as Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. officially closed on the purchase of ExxonMobil Corporation’s refinery at Lockwood and other properties including two subsidiaries.

Not since the refinery’s opening in 1949 has the refinery drawn so much attention, said Dan Carter, Public Affairs director for the refinery. Carter explained how people in Billings embraced the new refinery as it was being built, traveling out in trucks and busses every day, to see what was happening and to watch it rise up from what was then wide open prairie.

It changed the landscape in the valley and for the economy, said Carter, “Now, 75 years later the refinery is undergoing another organic, seismic change.”

Commending the refinery’s employees and leadership for “eight long months” of preparation for this day, Will Monteleone, President of Par Pacific Holdings, said that they are honored to become a part of the “talented team” and to be part of Billings and Yellowstone County, adding that the overall logistics and operation of the refinery, aligns perfectly with that of Par Pacific.

The $310 million sale of the ExxonMobil properties was announced in October 2022.

To now be known as Par Montana, the business joins that of Par Pacific, a market-leading energy, infrastructure and retail business, headquartered in Houston, Texas.  Par Pacific operates an integrated downstream network, throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies, and Hawaii, including 218,000 bpd of combined refining capacity across four locations, related multimodal logistics systems and 121 retail locations.

Montana Lt. Governor Kristen Juras welcomed Par Pacific to the state, saying “This is a big deal. It is a great opportunity for Montana and Yellowstone County.” The “good paying jobs” it will create will aid in stopping “the export of our kids,” she said.

Bill Pate, CEO of Par Pacific Holdings said “We are going to grow Par Montana” with a focus on “how can we expand this company?”

He said that the success of Par Pacific has been in recognizing the importance of being part of the businesses they acquire. “We differentiate ourselves by immersing ourselves into the company, into the local connections and into the local community.”

Part of being local was to encourage the refinery employees to choose a new name for the refinery and a new logo, which was also unveiled on Thursday –simple clean lines representing the rims and the river running below them.

Par Montana will be the lynch pin, not just a refinery,” said Pate, noting that they have three refineries in other states. “This acquisition significantly enhances our scale and geographic diversification. We expect the transaction to be immediately accretive to our earnings and cash flow. It is about how do we take what we have today and add on to it renewables, and continue to do what they do just using other feed stocks.”

“The key element of our strategy here is actually getting our reliability up and getting more production,” Pate said. “The state of Montana, the states around Montana, they need more fuels. It’s a tight market.”

Kim Jakub, the refinery manager, said that the refinery team has shown courage and commitment in the transition process. She said that “Billings is the perfect complement to our future. We will continue to be a strong community partner.”

The Billings refinery is a 63,000 barrel-per-day (bpd), high-conversion, complex facility that processes low-cost Western Canadian and regional Rocky Mountain crude oil. The refinery converts crude into gasoline, distillate, asphalt and other products to serve regional demand.

It employs about 320 people and has 80-100 contractors on-site on any given day supporting operations.

Included in the Par Pacific transaction was  the wholly owned 70-mile, 55,000 bpd Silvertip Pipeline, a 40% interest in the 750-mile, 65,000 bpd Yellowstone refined products pipeline, and four wholly owned and three joint venture refined product terminals located in Montana and Washington. Total storage capacity across the refinery and logistics locations totals 4.1 million barrels. Further, Par Pacific will supply approximately 250 Exxon and Mobil branded retail locations as part of the arrangement with ExxonMobil.

When the Billings refinery was opened in 1949 by Carter Oil Co. it processed 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Exxon has operated the refinery since 1973.

In 1947, 500 acres was purchased and plotted for the current refinery operations for about $61,000.