History
Par Pacific grew from a single Hawaii refinery into a three-refinery operator with retail stores, funding the expansion with acquisitions, share issues and ever larger credit facilities, ending in a May 2026 refinancing.
2017-2018: Tidying the debt and widening the footprint
The record opens in December 2017, when Par Pacific priced $300 million of 7.75% senior secured notes due 2025. The offering closed on 22 December, and most of the roughly $293 million raised went to pay off its KeyBank, Par Wyoming and WRC bank facilities and to unwind a forward-sale arrangement with J. Aron. The result was one set of secured notes plus a new asset-based revolver, a loan secured on the company's inventory and receivables.
Growth followed quickly. In January 2018 Par Hawaii agreed to buy 33 retail gasoline and convenience stores in Washington and Idaho from CHS for $70 million, with a long-term Cenex-branded fuel supply arrangement attached. In February the company moved its listing from the NYSE American to the main New York Stock Exchange, keeping the ticker PARR.
In August 2018 Par agreed to buy refining units near its Kapolei, Hawaii refinery from IES Downstream, which was ceasing refining. The price was $45 million: $30 million in cash plus 860,502 new shares. In November it agreed a much larger deal, buying TrailStone's U.S. Oil & Refining business for a base $358 million, part cash and part 2,363,776 shares, backed by a Goldman Sachs loan commitment. The IES purchase closed on 19 December, with a further 247,700 shares issued for an initial inventory adjustment. About 80 IES employees joined Par.
2019-2020: A second refinery, and a pandemic
On 11 January 2019 Par completed the U.S. Oil & Refining purchase. It brought a 42,000 barrel-a-day refinery, marine terminal and storage in Tacoma, Washington, and was funded partly by a new $250 million Goldman Sachs term loan. Par now had a second refinery.
The rest of 2019 was spent trimming the company's 5.00% convertible notes due 2021, which holders could turn into shares at about $18.00 each. In May, Par swapped about $31.7 million of the notes for about $14.8 million in cash and 1,303,344 new shares, leaving about $83.3 million outstanding. In December a second swap exchanged about $31.2 million of notes for about $2.3 million in cash and 1,793,788 shares, leaving about $48.7 million. Each swap cost existing shareholders some dilution, set against less debt.
When COVID-19 cut fuel demand, Par raised $105 million of new 12.875% senior secured notes with Goldman Sachs in May 2020, closing in June. The coupon was far higher than on the 2017 notes.
2021-2022: Raising cash and renewing the lifelines
As the pandemic eased, Par worked to cut debt. In February 2021 it sold 22 Hawaii retail properties to a Realty Income subsidiary for $116.1 million and leased them back for 15 years. The sale closed on 21 of them for about $109.4 million, and about $51.7 million went to repay the Bank of Hawaii mortgage on those properties. In March it raised about $75.7 million by selling 5 million shares to pay down debt and fund general needs.
In June 2021 Par Hawaii renewed its supply and offtake agreement with J. Aron to May 2024, adding a discretionary draw facility of up to $165 million. In February 2022 the asset-based revolver was replaced with a $105 million facility from Bank of America, up from $85 million. In October 2022 Par agreed to buy ExxonMobil's Billings, Montana refinery, a 63,000 barrel-a-day plant, for a base $310 million.
2023-2026: Three refineries and a bigger balance sheet
In March 2023 Par took out a $550 million Wells Fargo-led term loan maturing 2030. It used the money to retire its existing term loan and buy back both the 2025 and 2026 notes, including the costly 12.875% ones. In May it signed a new revolver with a $150 million initial facility and up to $450 million more for the Montana purchase. The Billings deal closed on 1 June for roughly $638 million, funded by cash and a $215 million draw, giving Par its third refinery.
In October 2023 Par ended the Merrill Lynch Commodities arrangement that had supported U.S. Oil & Refining since 2016, moving it onto the company's own revolver, which grew to $900 million. The revolver rose to $1.4 billion in March 2024. In June 2024 the J. Aron agreement for Hawaii expired and was replaced by an inventory arrangement with Citigroup Energy. The share count fell from about 60.5 million at the end of 2023 to about 50.3 million by the end of 2025, though the beats do not explain the fall.
In July 2025 Par agreed a joint venture with Mitsubishi and ENEOS, through Alohi Renewable Energy, to build a renewable fuels plant beside the Kapolei refinery, expected to make about 61 million gallons a year. It closed on 22 October: Par's Hawaii Renewables Holdings kept 63.5% and three of four board seats, while Alohi paid $100 million for 36.5%.
On 14 May 2026 Par completed a refinancing of $500 million of 7.375% unsecured notes due 2034 and a new $1.8 billion asset-based facility, expandable to $2.3 billion and running to 2031, replacing the 2023 facility.
Written from the 32 story beats below (2017 to 14 May 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.