The American group VALERO ENERGY, the third largest refinery in America behind EXXON MOBIL and CONOCOPHILLIPS, is to acquire the refinery PREMCOR for 6.9 billion dollars (plus debt of 1 billion dollars), creating the largest refinery group in North America. This group will own 19 refineries with a total capacity of 3.29 million barrels a day, have assets of 25 billion dollars and achieve a turnover in the region of 70 billion dollars.