Refining

The Domino Sugar plant in South Baltimore that shut down after an explosion and fire last week could restart operations by Friday, a company official said yesterday. Brian O'Malley, president of sales and marketing for Domino Foods Inc.in Iselin, N.J., said work crews are doing an extensive overhaul and cleaning of the nine-story building on Key Highway. "We certainly feel very fortunate that nobody was seriously injured or killed," O'Malley said. "It's too early to tell on the damage estimate, but we're going to be back 100 percent in a very short period of time."

Brandon Hamschin grew up next door to a dairy farm in rural western Pennsylvania. So when this 31-year old engineer headed south to work in an applied physics lab in Laurel, Md., he knew a complete change was due and willingly opted for city-life. "I was fairly homeless before I moved here," he recalled. The applied physics lab put me up. " His search for houses online paid off when he found a small, two-story row house with basement and rooftop deck on a quiet street in the east Baltimore neighborhood of Canton.

Crown Central Petroleum Corp., which has posted losses in seven of the past eight years, reported a second-quarter loss yesterday of $11 million, or $1.12 per share, vs. a $2.2 million loss, or 22 cents a share, in the comparable quarter last year.The Baltimore gasoline refiner and retailer had revenue of $281 million, compared with $339 million in the second quarter of 1998.Crown blamed the loss in large part on low refining margins -- the difference between what it costs to purchase and refine crude oil and the amount made on sales of the finished product.

For his 50th birthday, Patrick Sutton got down - but not dirty - on the farm. The Baltimore interior designer is known for his elegant, understated and carefully curated spaces. To celebrate his milestone birthday, he and his girlfriend, Tracy Kwiatkowski, kept the elegance but added a few rough edges. That approach - mixing high-end style with less refined elements - is a popular one among Baltimore's party planning elite. Sutton's "Rustic Renaissance" birthday festivities took place outside, overlooking the rolling hills of Sagamore Farm, the Reisterstown horse farm owned by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank (and decorated by Sutton)

W. R. Grace & Co. announced yesterday that its third quarter profit rose 3 percent, buoyed by higher sales of chemicals used in oil refining. The Columbia chemical maker's results for the quarter exceeded by a cent the 50 cents a share average forecast by analysts. The results were announced after the market close. Grace earned $34.1 million, or 51 cents per diluted share, a 15.9 percent increase in earnings per share when compared with $32.8 million, or 44 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Samuel H. McGlumphy, a retired division manager for Quaker State Oil Refining Corp. and a World War II veteran, died of heart failure Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 82. A resident of Joppatown since 1966, Mr. McGlumphy was born and raised in Wellsburg, W.Va. He enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. In the early years of World War II, he served as a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's White House honor guard and once had tea with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, according to his son, Jan Jackson McGlumphy of Bel Air. Mr. McGlumphy later served with a unit of Army engineers in France that helped lay a pipeline across the country.

Crown Central Petroleum yesterday reported a 57 percent decrease in second-quarter earnings as a poor performance by the company's refining operations was too much for the retail division to overcome.The Baltimore-based oil refiner and marketer reported net profit of $3 million for the quarter ending June 30, down from $7 million earned during the corresponding quarter in 1995. On a per-share basis, earnings plummeted from 72 cents to 31 cents.For the first six months of the year, Crown had a net loss of $10 million, or $1.03 a share, a larger loss than the $3.1 million, or 32 cents a share, for the corresponding period in 1995.

DALLAS -- Airlines already crumbling under crude oil prices face another major expense: the record-high cost of turning crude into jet fuel. Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita idled much of the Gulf of Mexico's refining capacity, most U.S. airlines have been paying an extra premium to refine or "crack" the oil into kerosene-like jet fuel. In July, before the storms, airlines paid the equivalent of $11 per barrel of crude in addition to the spot price to keep planes aloft. Now the "crack spread" has spiked to nearly $59, meaning it costs nearly as much to refine the jet fuel as it does to buy a barrel of crude.

Crown Central Petroleum Corp., a Baltimore-based refiner and marketer of gasoline, reported yesterday a 72.5 percent drop in third-quarter profit on a 25 percent decline in revenue.Crown also said yesterday that Edward L. Rosenberg, executive vice president in charge of supply and transportation, will leave the company at the end of the year "to be actively involved in family business interests."Frank B. Rosenberg, senior vice president of marketing, will add the responsibility for wholesale sales and terminals.

Baltimore-based Crown Central Petroleum Corp. posted its first profit in nearly two years during the second quarter, but sees a challenging environment ahead, the company said yesterday. Crown said it earned $9.2 million, or 93 cents a share, in the quarter, which ended June 30. That compares with a net loss of $11 million, or $1.12 per share, posted for the second quarter of 1999. Sales totaled $481 million, a 71 percent jump from the $281.4 million notched during second-quarter 1999.

Orioles reliever Pedro Strop turned 27 earlier this month, but he's already overcome a career's worth of obstacles. There were plenty of nights filled with uncertainty - and tears - along the way. There were times when he wondered whether his childhood dream would ever become reality, whether those times rehabbing and reinventing would ever pay off. "A lot of tough times," Strop said, sitting at his locker in the corner of the Orioles' clubhouse...

Prometric, a Baltimore-based provider of educational testing services, said Thursday it secured a $175 million loan to refinance the remaining debt of when it was purchased five years ago by Educational Testing Services Inc. for $435 million. The loan arrangement is in two parts: a five-year, $165 million loan arranged by TD Securities, and a $10 million revolving line of credit funded by nine banks. Prometric will also use some of the funds as working capital for company initiatives.

In the more than 45 years since the Prime Rib opened, precious little has changed at the iconic midtown restaurant. Walking in is like stepping into a bygone era: Well-dressed diners carve into steaks the size of dinner plates while waiters in suits top off their wine glasses. The walls are black with gold trim; on them hang paintings, posters and framed covers of Vogue from the early 1930s. And who could miss that swinging '60s leopard print carpet? The Prime Rib has been around long enough to see its style fall in and out of fashion.

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Defensive tackle Arthur Jones made his first career start Saturday, finishing with just one tackle in the Ravens' 20-14 victory over the Cleveland Browns. “It felt amazing to run out of that tunnel with my team,” Jones said. “It was a special moment, and it couldn't have been a better Christmas.” Starting in place of injured defensive end Cory Redding (right ankle), Jones had a few chances to make plays but was unable to follow through. Jones said refining his play will be priority No. 1 this week.

Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole has closed on a $135 million refinancing of its construction loan. CBRE Capital Markets, which arranged the deal, said Monday that the retail project got a seven-year loan with HSBC Bank. Annapolis Towne Centre's retail, developed in 2008 by Owings Mills-based Greenberg Gibbons, is one piece of a 2.2-million-square-foot complex with offices, apartments and condos as well as shops and a grocery store. The project is 95 percent leased, CBRE Capital Markets said.

Crown Central Petroleum Corp. said yesterday that low refining margins produced a $700,000 quarterly loss that snapped a year-long streak of strong earnings.The fourth-quarter loss represents a steep drop from the year-ago period, for which Baltimore-based Crown reported a net profit of $10.9 million. On a per-share basis, the loss was 7 cents, compared with net profit of $1.12 a share a year ago. Sales were down 7 percent, to $404 million.The company said high processing rates in the second and third quarters sent gasoline inventories soaring in the fourth quarter.

SAN ANTONIO - Valero Energy Corp. agreed yesterday to buy Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. for $6 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt, creating the second-largest U.S. oil refiner behind Exxon Mobil Corp. Ultramar holders will get $55 in cash or 1.23 shares of Valero stock for each share held. That's 29 percent more than Ultramar's closing price Friday. Valero will pay about half in cash and half in stock. It will assume about $2 billion in debt. Valero's chief executive, William Greehey, said limited U.S. capacity for refining oil into gasoline and other fuels, combined with high demand, are boosting profit margins after years of low earnings.

WESTMINSTER - Carroll County conducted its annual bond sale last week, selling some $30.2 million in bonds to finance $18.8 million for infrastructure and capital improvement projects, and $11.4 million to refinance existing debt at lower rates. The bond sale followed the annual review of the county's rating by various credit rating agencies. Those agencies generally gave the county high ranks. The county was rated AAA by Fitch Ratings service in New York; Aa1 by Moody's credit service, a rating that signifies very low risk; and AA+ by Standard & Poors, a designation that also signifies very low risk.

W.R. Grace & Co. is expanding one of its joint ventures to provide more products and services to petroleum refiners in places such as the Middle East, the Columbia-based chemical maker announced Wednesday. The joint venture, Advanced Refining Technologies, was created to develop and supply hydroprocessing catalysts to refiners. The venture is a partnership between Grace, Chevron Products Company and Kuwait Catalyst Co. Kuwait Catalyst, which provides these catalysts to the Persian Gulf region, is the largest shareholder.