has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article includes a list of references but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations . please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . january 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message u.s. refining co. type subsidiary industry oil refining founded 1952 as pacific oil & refining co. 1955 as u.s. oil & refining tacoma washington united states products petrochemical number of employees 160 website www.usor.com u.s. oil & refining co. is an oil refinery located in the tideflats of tacoma washington . contents 1 history 2 products and facility 3 notes and references 4 external links history edit usor u.s. oil & refining co. began in 1952 as pacific oil & refining co. 1 a privately held corporation . its first president was dr. ernest lyder . the company was formed to build an oil refinery in the pacific northwest . in 1954 the refinery s present site in tacoma was purchased and in 1955 the corporation was renamed u.s. oil & refining co. construction of the initial facility a 5 000 barrels per day 790 m3 d stream refinery began during the summer of 1955 . chico marx entertained at the ground breaking ceremony on july 22 1955 for the new 10 million plant . tacoma mayor harold tollefson and senators warren g. magnuson and henry m. jackson also attended the ceremony . construction was completed in mid 1957 and the refinery in full operation by the end of the year . the site had been a favorite spot for fishing swimming and duck hunting in earlier years . the west end of the site had once been the city landfill which at one time contained unmodified unstripped japanese zeros brought over from after world war ii . the east end of the site was once wetlands . a second crude unit capable of processing heavy crude oil used in the manufacture of paving grade asphalt became operational in 1959 . usor was sold to astra oil trading a subsidiary of transcor in 2006 . astra sold usor to trailstone in 2014 . 2 products and facility edit partial view of usor with mt. rainier in background the refinery with current crude capacity of 39 000 barrels per day 6 200 m3 d is located on 136 acres 55 ha in the deep water port of tacoma washington . this includes 11.5 acres 4.7 ha of waterfront with 1 350 feet 410 m of waterfront on the blair waterway which provides direct access by ocean going barges and tankers . five pipelines varying in size connect the refinery and marine terminal . there is also a 14.5 mile 23.3 km pipeline connecting the refinery to mcchord air force base supplying jet fuel to the base . the refinery has direct rail access and is close to both a major interstate highway system and the seattle tacoma international airport . the refinery s products include gasoline diesel marine and jet fuels residual fuels and asphalt . 3 these products are made by use of a few different primary process units including vacuum distillation catalytic reforming isomerization and diesel hydrotreating . usor receives most of its crude oil by rail car and some by vessel at its dock . the refinery has storage capacity for approximately one million barrels of crude oil and one million barrels of refined petroleum products . in 2007 storage was increased by 500 000 barrels 79 000 m3 of crude oil and 250 000 barrels 40 000 m3 of other products . distribution facilities include truck and trailer marine and rail loading for fuels and asphalt in tacoma and deliveries of jet fuel via pipeline . notes and references edit notes company overview of u.s. oil & refining co. . bloomberg.com . retrieved 2015 11 18 . commodities trading firm trailstone buys u.s. oil & refining . wall street journal . retrieved 2015 11 18 . company overview of u.s. oil & refining co. . bloomberg.com . retrieved 2015 11 18 . references usor company archives and external links below tacoma public library tacoma past & present external links edit u.s. oil & refining s home page astra oil trading web site transcor ag web site business week company profile of u.s. oil & refining coordinates 47 15 31 n 122 23 43 w 47.25861 n 122.39528 w 47.25861 ; 122.39528 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title u.s. oil and refining & oldid 739093955 categories oil refineries in the united statesenergy infrastructure in washington state buildings and structures in pierce county washingtonenergy infrastructure completed in 1957hidden categories articles lacking in text citations from january 2008all articles lacking in text citationsarticles needing additional references from january 2008all articles needing additional referencescoordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 12 september 2016 at 19 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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