Two major refineries in Texas and Illinois will become wholly owned by Phillips 66 with the announcement Tuesday that Cenovus Energy is selling Phillips its 50 percent stake in the company that operates them for $1.4 billion.
WRB Refining, a joint venture between the two companies, owns and operates the Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Illinois, and the Borger Refinery in Borger. Together the two refineries have a combined crude throughput capacity of 495,000 barrels per day.
The sale comes on the heels of the announcement in August that Calgary-based Cenovus is acquiring MEG Energy for $7.9 billion.
Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie said the deal will allow an acceleration of near-term shareholder returns.
WRB was formed by ConocoPhillips in 2006. A 50 percent share was sold in 2007 to what was then EnCana Energy. Their interest was transferred to Cenovus in 2009. In 2012, ConocoPhillips contributed its interest in WRB to Phillips 66 as part of its spin-off by ConocoPhillips.
Cenovus was advised by Sidley Austin with a team led from Houston by partners Atman Shukla and Cliff Vrielink along with Houston associates Courtney Beloin and Harris Dubin.
Phillips 66 managing counsel Maine Goodfellow handled the deal in-house in Houston alongside tax counsel Telma Cox.
For outside counsel, Phillips 66 was advised by a Bracewell Houston partners Will Anderson and Andrew Monk, along with Elizabeth McGinley in New York and Bucky Brannen in Dallas. The team also included partners Bryan Dumesnil, Heather Brown and Bradley Benoit in Houston, partner Timothy Wilkins in Austin, partner Daniel Hemli in New York, counsel Jacqueline Java in Washington, D.C. and Houston associates Chase Edmunds and Madison Rich.