Albany ethanol facility is sold
Sale of LogiBio terminal to Pennsylvania company is set to close by Wednesday

By Eric Anderson
Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Aug. 26--ALBANY -- A pipeline and storage company with ties to John D. Rockefeller will pay $45 million to acquire the LogiBio Albany Terminal adjacent to the Port of Albany.
The former Cibro Petroleum facility, described as the second-largest ethanol terminal in the nation, will be purchased by Buckeye Partners L.P. of Breinigsville, Pa. The deal is expected to close by Wednesday.
The facility will be known as Buckeye Albany Terminal. And Buckeye Partners said it plans to expand in Albany.
"We certainly anticipate increasing the amount of business we do there," said Stephen Milbourne, manager of investor relations for the company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BPL. Shares were up 38 cents to $41.37 Monday.
The terminal currently has 22 employees, but that is expected to grow as business expands under Buckeye's ownership.
LogiBio, a Houston-based biofuels supply and trading company, bought the facility from Cibro Petroleum in a deal that closed just 13 months ago, on July 19, 2007. LogiBio paid $10.125 million at a court auction; Cibro originally filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 1992.
Over the past year, LogiBio Albany Terminals LLC expanded capabilities at the facility to unload 102 tank cars at a time, up from 80. LogiBio Albany Terminals occupies 37 acres, 30 of them leased from the Port of Albany and another seven owned by the terminal.
The facility has 1.8 million barrels of storage capacity.
Buckeye Partners owns and operates what it describes as one of the largest independent refined petroleum products pipeline systems in the United States in terms of volume delivered. In addition to its 5,400 miles of pipeline, it operates and maintains another 2,200 miles of pipeline for major oil and chemical companies, and owns 63 terminals and a natural gas storage facility in northern California.
The company, although based in Pennsylvania, draws its name from Ohio, where it originated in 1886 as a pipeline company that was part of the Rockefeller-controlled Standard Oil Co. (The buckeye is Ohio's state tree.)
It was spun off in 1911 when the Standard Oil trust was dissolved. Acquired in 1964 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, later Penn Central, it became an independent company again in 1986.
For the second quarter ended June 30, Buckeye Partners reported net income of $40.9 million on $492.5 million in revenue, up from $34.5 million on revenue of $125 million a year earlier. Revenue was boosted in the current quarter by the acquisition of an energy services company in February.
The Albany terminal "is being acquired by a very sizable and stable company," said Milbourne, Buckeye's manager of investor relations.
Mike Mayo, who was general manager of the Albany terminal when it was operated by Cibro Petroleum and vice president of terminal operations in Albany with LogiBio, will remain with LogiBio as it expands its own ethanol distribution facilities in the South.
The purchase price could bring LogiBio as much as $48 million, if it is successful in modifying long-term contracts at the terminal and if operations there meet certain performance goals over the next three years, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Each of those would bring an additional $1.5 million above the $45 million acquisition price. Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.
Buckeye Partners L.P. What it does: Owns and operates petroleum pipelines, terminals and storage facilities, and distributes fuel products. Headquarters: Breinigsville, Pa. Founded: 1886 Employees: 920 (employed by Buckeye Pipe Line Services Co.)
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