Unocal to Cease Operations at Its Oil Refinery in Texas : Energy: The move is seen as part of the new chairman’s plan to streamline money-losing operations.

Unocal Corp. said Wednesday that it would cease manufacturing at its Beaumont oil refinery in Texas early next year, suspending virtually all operations at the unprofitable 65-year-old plant, which employs 462 people.

In doing so, Unocal admitted that it had failed to turn around the aging plant even after eliminating 160 jobs and cutting money-losing production of petroleum fuels last summer. Unocal said it has no offers to buy and no plans to sell the plant in Nederland, Tex., about 75 miles east of Houston.

“Despite efforts to increase profitability at the refinery, the facility has continued to lose money every month since the downsizing last year,” Richard J. Stegemeier, Unocal’s chairman, said in a statement.

The company did not detail losses, except to say they amounted to several million dollars a year.

The move was seen as part of Unocal’s continuing effort to streamline unprofitable operations under Stegemeier, who succeeded longtime Unocal Chairman Fred L. Hartley last year. But some analysts said the closing runs counter to a trend in the industry that has kept refined products in strong demand.

It was reported earlier that Hartley had opposed efforts to close or cut output at Beaumont, giving rise to unfounded rumors that he had his first Unocal job at the plant. Hartley first worked for Unocal in San Francisco.

Under Stegemeier, Unocal has systematically sold assets, including its downtown Los Angeles headquarters. Last month, the company said it would significantly reduce its retail operations in the Pacific Northwest.

Last summer, Unocal discontinued making gasoline and other petroleum fuels at the 120,000-barrel-per-day Beaumont plant. The plant could only process costly low-sulfur crude oil, and profit margins for refined products were thin in the Gulf area, a company spokesman said.

By focusing on relatively small production of high value-added specialty chemicals and lube oil at the plant, the company had hoped to stem the flow of red ink. The plant now processes about 50,000 barrels of crude per day.

The company will begin shutting down operations in mid-January, with all manufacturing to stop by the end of the first quarter of 1990. The company may continue to operate the plant as a terminal, to accept oil for shipment elsewhere.

The plant’s 462 workers will be transferred to other operations or be dismissed. Unocal must negotiate severance terms with labor unions representing about 337 of the workers. Only about 10 employees will be needed if the plant becomes a terminal.

Some analysts attributed the Beaumont plant’s lack of profits to lackluster markets for its products, which include lube oil and two hydrocarbons: aromatics and aliphatic solvents.

Aromatics include benzene and xylene, used to make gasoline, and toluene, used as an industrial solvent. Aliphatic solvents are chemicals used to make paints, dry cleaning fluids and ink.

“The real profits are going to companies with refining and marketing together, and Unocal has that on the West Coast,” said Philip K. Verleger Jr., an economist and fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington. “But orphan refineries like Beaumont must dispose of their products on the open market, and that is very competitive.”

Despite that competition, most refiners have enjoyed strong demand for refined products over much of the past year. Earlier, the industry had a slump that resulted in the closure of several plants around the country.

Refineries have run at record rates of capacity for much of the year to meet relatively strong demand for fuel. Refining capacity could remain tight if there are more accidents such as the explosion that disabled a Phillips Petroleum Co. plastics plant in Texas last month.

As a result, some companies have reopened previously mothballed refineries and others have reportedly shopped around to buy refining companies, particularly on the West Coast.

On Tuesday, Tosco Corp., the West Coast’s largest independent oil refiner, said it had received offers from three multinational suitors for either the entire Santa Monica-based company or its Northern California refinery.

Unocal itself is about to close a $500-million joint venture deal with the national petroleum company of Venezuela that includes selling a half interest in its Chicago oil refinery.