Producer
Valero Energy
World's largest independent petroleum refiner; 15 refineries in the US (mostly Gulf Coast: Port Arthur TX, Texas City TX, Memphis TN), Canada, UK, and Ireland. Produces elemental sulfur as a mandatory Claus Process byproduct at all its refineries. Port Arthur refinery (210,000 bbl/day capacity) is one of the largest single US refiners; McKee refinery explicitly listed as producing sulfur, sulfuric acid, and LPG. USGS: ExxonMobil, Valero, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon were the leading US sulfur producers in 2018. Texas + Louisiana account for 52% of US sulfur production.
3
Inputs supplied
3
Goods downstream
3
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
3 inputs Valero Energy supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Valero Energy makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
PADD 3 Gulf Coast refinery region →
USTexas/Louisiana · manufacturing
Gulf Coast produces ~998,000 b/d of jet fuel — ~60% of all US production. East Coast produces only ~84,000 b/d. Seven major refineries closed 2019–2026 (Philadelphia Energy Solutions 335k b/d, Marathon Martinez 161k b/d, Phillips 66 LA 138k b/d, Valero Benicia 170k b/d, LyondellBasell Houston 264k b/d, others) permanently removing 1.235M b/d of capacity.
Valero Port Arthur Refinery (TX) →
USTexas · refinery
Port Arthur, TX; 310,000 bpd capacity. Adjacent to Motiva Port Arthur refinery — Port Arthur TX is effectively a 1 million+ bpd refinery cluster (Motiva 630K + Valero 310K + other facilities). Valero Port Arthur processes heavy sour crude; connected to crude import terminals on Sabine Lake. Source: https://www.valero.com/en-us/pages/our-locations.aspx
Valero Port Arthur Refinery — Texas →
USTexas · refinery
210,000 bbl/day capacity; one of the largest US refineries. Produces elemental sulfur as Claus byproduct. Located in Port Arthur industrial zone alongside TotalEnergies and Motiva (Saudi Aramco) refineries — this small Texas/Louisiana coastal zone is the largest US sulfur production cluster. In April 2026, a blast at the Valero Port Arthur facility was reported, disrupting operations.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Petroleum Refining (World #1 Independent)
75%Renewable Diesel (Diamond Green Diesel JV)
10%Corn Ethanol
8%Chemicals + Refinery Byproducts
7%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
Valero is publicly known as a petroleum refiner (the company that turns crude oil into gasoline), but through Diamond Green Diesel they are also the world's largest producer of renewable diesel — fuel made from animal fats, used cooking oil, and soybean oil using the same hydroprocessing technology as petroleum refining. DGD's Norco, Louisiana plant produces ~800 million gallons/year of renewable diesel. The feedstocks come from Darling Ingredients (their JV partner), which is the world's largest renderer of animal byproducts from slaughterhouses — collecting tallow from beef processing plants. This creates a supply chain where: cattle are slaughtered (JBS, Tyson) → tallow byproduct → Darling Ingredients collects → Diamond Green Diesel converts to fuel → diesel engines run the trucks that transport more cattle to slaughter. The petroleum refinery and the cattle supply chain form a circular loop through renewable diesel, with Valero operating at the intersection of fossil fuel infrastructure and agricultural waste valorization.
Valero Energy Corporation ↗Origin2023
Valero Energy was founded in 1980 as Valero Natural Gas Company — not a refining company but a San Antonio-based natural gas pipeline and marketing business. Their 1981 acquisition of the Shamrock Energy refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas began the transformation to refining. CEO Bill Greehey's strategy was counter-cyclical: acquire refineries when petroleum refining economics were poor and other companies were selling. Valero acquired Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (2001, $6B), Orion Energy (2003), and Premcor (2005, $8B) — all during periods of relatively depressed refinery values. By 2005, Valero had become the world's largest independent refiner, having assembled the assets at below-replacement cost. The same counter-cyclical acquisition strategy was used in renewable diesel: Valero's JV with Darling Ingredients to build Diamond Green Diesel in 2011 when renewable diesel economics were uncertain was an early bet on biofuel mandates — which subsequently made DGD one of the highest-return capital investments Valero made.
Valero Energy Corporation ↗