The Foreign Trade Zones Board of the U.S. Commerce Department has approved the Port of San Francisco’s application for Valero Refining Company to establish a foreign trade zone (FTZ) subzone at its Benicia refinery. U.S. Customs and Border Protection followed this action by approving activation of the site, which will operate as a subzone of the Port of San Francisco’s Foreign Trade Zone No. 3.
By Patrick Burnson
Published: May, 2012
The Foreign Trade Zones Board of the U.S. Commerce Department has approved the Port of San Francisco’s application for Valero Refining Company to establish a foreign trade zone (FTZ) subzone at its Benicia refinery. U.S. Customs and Border Protection followed this action by approving activation of the site, which will operate as a subzone of the Port of San Francisco’s Foreign Trade Zone No. 3.
Valero expects that FTZ status at the Benicia refinery will allow it to improve its net operating efficiencies at that refinery—by speeding the process for importing materials—and put it in a better position to retain jobs and compete with imports of finished petroleum products.
Valero owns 16 refineries in the United States, Canada and Aruba, 10 of which are currently operating as foreign-trade subzones. Valero’s refineries produce conventional gasoline, distillates, jet fuel, asphalt, petrochemicals, lubricants, low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, and other refined products. Valero also produces gasoline that meets the more stringent specifications of the California Air Resources Board.
"The Port of San Francisco is pleased that Valero is able to take advantage of the benefits the Foreign Trade Zone program offers," said Port Deputy Director Peter Dailey. "The subzone allows Valero to strengthen its refinery business in Benicia and retain and grow jobs in Northern California."
"The FTZ will allow us to better compete with other refineries in the area that already operate as foreign-trade zone subzones in the highly competitive California and global fuels market," said Lauren Bird, Benicia Refinery operations director.
The Port’s Foreign Trade Zone No. 3 was established by a grant of authority from the Department of Commerce in 1948. The Port of San Francisco recently received approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce to reorganize Foreign Trade Zone No.3 under the FTZ Board’s new Alternative Site Framework (ASF) program, which streamlines the process for local businesses to apply for foreign trade zone benefits.
Valero Energy Corporation, through its subsidiaries, is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products and power. Valero subsidiaries employ approximately 22,000 people, and its assets include 16 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3 million barrels per day, 10 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.2 billion gallons per year, and a 50-megawatt wind farm. Approximately 6,800 retail and branded wholesale outlets carry the Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock and Beacon brands in the United States and the Caribbean; Ultramar in Canada; and Texaco in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Valero is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio.
Port of Oakland Releases Economic Impact Report
The Port of Oakland, meanwhile, rolled out the key findings of an economic impact study last month by launching a new jobs brochure, "Powering Jobs, Empowering Communities," that illustrates the port’s positive economic impacts locally, regionally and nationally. The brochure features real people who hold port-related jobs. Some of those workers were introduced at a news conference, where they shared their stories about the port’s positive effect upon their families and livelihoods.
"The Port of Oakland is a jobs-creating powerhouse, and we wanted to put a human face on the over 73,000 jobs in the region that are powered by the port," said Port Board President Pamela Calloway. "Also, we’re not just talking about powering jobs and empowering communities, we are working every day to broaden and deepen the port’s job creation and community empowerment efforts."
The Port of Oakland receives no local tax dollars, instead generating tax revenue from its three business lines: aviation, commercial real estate and maritime. The study by Martin Associates was based on 2010 data collected and analyzed in 2011. The findings revealed that the port generated over $671 million in tax revenue in 2010 and $1.5 billion in wages for 37,116 direct job holders that same year.
Nearly one in five direct jobs created by the port is held by an Oakland resident. More than half of the Port of Oakland’s direct jobs belong to residents of Alameda County; and the port powers over 30,000 trade-related jobs in the California Central Valley as well.
According to port Executive Director Omar R. Benjamin, "Port business drives job creation—specifically more cargo, more passengers, more infrastructure projects, and more tenants. That’s why the port is focused aggressively on its core businesses." Benjamin added, "We can do more by working together; that’s why we’re asking the community and our partners across the region to join us."
The Port of Oakland includes the Oakland seaport, Oakland International Airport and 20 miles of waterfront. For every 1,000 airport passengers, 3.3 airport jobs are sustained; for every 1,000 containers imported or exported at the seaport, 8 direct jobs are supported; and the port’s commercial real estate powers nearly 8 percent of the more than 73,000 port-related jobs in the region.
About every five years, the Port of Oakland commissions an economic impact study. It is a process by which the data is collected over a year and then analyzed the following year. The "Powering Jobs, Empowering Communities" brochure broadly highlights the key findings of the 2010 Economic Impact Report of the Port of Oakland.
To download the port’s new jobs brochure, the PowerPoint on the 2010 Economic Impact Report, the 5-year Strategic Plan, or to request a copy of the complete economic impact report, Bay Crossings readers should visit:
www.portofoakland.com/poweringjobs.
