(Updates to include corporate history, paragraphs 3-8)
Sept 9 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp, the leading U.S. refiner, may soon return to its roots as a buyer of refineries, Chief Executive Officer Joe Gorder said on Wednesday.
"We think there are acquisition opportunities going forward," Gorder said during a webcast presentation at the Barclays Energy Conference in New York.
A Valero CEO has not expressed as broad a commitment to acquiring new refineries since 2005, when company founder Bill Greehey stepped down. Greehey grew the company through purchases of refining companies and single-plant buys primarily in the early years of this century.
Under former Chief Executive Bill Klesse, who succeeded Greehey, Valero focused on growth through improvement of existing plants, saying acquisitions would be done only through a disciplined process following set criteria.
The company sold two refineries in the U.S. Northeast in 2010 and in 2011 purchased the Pembroke refinery in Wales from Chevron Corp and a Meraux, Louisiana, refinery from Murphy Oil. Gorder took over from Klesse in 2014.
As late as April of this year, Gorder told Reuters that Valero would grow its existing assets and was not looking to buy plants.
"There is nothing currently pending," Gorder said after the company's annual shareholders meeting. "I don't think there are any refining assets that are in the market that we would take a look at."
But Gorder said on Wednesday that Valero already had refineries and logistics assets in its sights
"This is something you're doing all the time," he said. "We have a list of targets we're looking at internally."
Gorder declined to say where the San Antonio-based company was shopping for possible purchases.
Some targets could be corporate acquisitions, while others could be single facilities, he added.
Compared with refineries, however, Gorder said he expected a higher growth rate in the logistics sector, where Valero, like its competitors, operates a master limited partnership focused on crude oil and refined products pipelines and terminals.
Valero operates 13 refineries in North America with a combined crude oil processing capacity of 1.96 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Valero also owns the Pembroke refinery and 11 U.S. ethanol plants and controls the Valero Energy Partners master limited partnership. (Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Von Ahn and Paul Simao)
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