I thought Valero was owned by the late Chavez . . . is this true?
Absolutely False. Valero is a Texas Company.
Named for the mission San Antonio de Valero – the original name of the Alamo – Valero Energy Corporation was created on Jan. 1, 1980, as the corporate successor to LoVaca Gathering Company, a subsidiary of the Coastal States Gas Corporation. Valero is the direct result of a $1.6 billion settlement approved unanimously in 1978 by the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s natural gas regulatory agency, which ended more than six years of litigation brought against Coastal by its municipal gas customers who claimed they had been overcharged for natural gas.
Valero’s natural-gas transportation business diversified in the mid-1980s when the company purchased a 50 percent interest in a Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery owned by Saber Energy. The operation began as nothing more than a vacuum unit and crude unit on a humble plot of land near the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. But in the years that followed, Valero assembled its “Refinery of the Future,” and through its subsidiaries added more refineries starting in 1997, operating 16 plants today. Through these acquisitions, the company also branched into retail and wholesale markets and continues to operate under 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.
Today, Valero proudly has a workforce of 22,000 employees and maintains a refining throughput capacity of 3 million barrels per day, making it the world’s largest independent refiner — tops among refiners that don’t also drill for oil. The company ranks No. 12 on the current Fortune 500 list, and is still based in its hometown of San Antonio. Valero is also a leading ethanol producer with 10 ethanol plants in the Midwest and a combined production of 1.2 billion gallons per year. Valero also operates a 33-turbine wind farm near its McKee Refinery in Sunray, Texas.
Valero > Our Business > Company History
http://www.valero.com/ourbusiness/pages/companyhistory.aspx
No. Citgo was the company owned by Chavez.
You are confusing it with Citgo.
I believe that would be Citgo.
This internet myth was started in '06 by Debbie Schussel, and has been compounded by business decisions since then.
Valero bought old refineries from Citgo, naturally many concluded that the it was just a name change.
And many chains, including 7-11, saw declining sales under Citgo and did not renew contracts with them. Many then signed contracts with Valero, again many said "Aha - name change."
A couple years ago I heard the myth, did some research, and learned Valero has no corporate connection to Citgo or Venezuela.