Tampa, Florida-based Amalie Oil Company last Monday announced its acquisition of Delfin Group USA LLC, a lubricant blending and packaging facility in Charleston, S.C. The purchase price was not disclosed. With the December acquisition of this 42-acre facility on the Cooper River deep-water channel at the Port of North Charleston, Amalie now has two world-class facilities in major U.S. ports with deep-water access.

“This new facility is an opportunity for us to enhance our ability to service both the domestic and international markets,” says Harry Barkett, President of Amalie. “A facility with such a rich history, immense capabilities and unparalleled access can only yield positive results for our clientele.”

The property includes a deep-water pier, rail access and close proximity to major federal interstates. The pier is capable of handling dock offloading for ships up to 660 feet long with a 110-foot beam, and the navigable mean low water depth is 45 to 50 feet.

The facility features 14 million gallons of tank storage, increasing Amalie’s total tank storage to 32 million gallons. Additionally, Amalie now owns a total of more than 650,000 square feet in warehouse and manufacturing space and 20 high-speed filling and packaging lines, increasing the company’s blow molding plastic bottle capacity to more than 250 million containers per year.

The facility’s previous owner, Moscow-based Delfin Russia’s U.S. arm, purchased the facility in late 2007 from Chevron for $20 million. It later announced plans to invest $55 million to make it a major oil-mixing and bottling hub. Originally developed as a fuel terminal by Texaco in 1910, the plant remained a Texaco facility transitioning to blending, compounding, packaging and bulk terminal operations into the mid-1990s, when ownership was transferred to Equilon Lubricants joint venture between Texaco and Shell in 1997, and in 2002 was made part of Shell Oil Products US.

Under Delfin’s ownership, the business ran into legal trouble when its president, Markos Baghdasarian, was indicted in May 2012 based on information from a whistleblower. The Iran-born executive pleaded guilty later that year to three counts involving accusations of conspiring to violate the 1995 trade embargo against his home country, illegally exporting goods to Iran and making false statements on federal documents, according to court documents. Baghdasarian was to serve three years in prison.

In January 1998, Tampa-based Petroleum Packers Inc, also known at that time as PEPAC, and owned by the Barkett family, purchased Amalie, the historic motor oil brand which dates back to 1903, from Sunoco, moving its headquarters to Tampa. Since then, the Barketts have grown Amalie into a company that exports to all 50 states and over 100 countries, as well as naming rights to the Amalie Arena, which houses the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm. Located in Port Tampa Bay on a 20-acre production site, the family owned and operated company has over 250 employees who blend and package over 3,000 products from 8-ounce plastic bottles to bulk-rail transports.

According to Amalie, it is the largest family owned, independent blender of motor oils and industrial lubricants in North America. Amalie produces engine oils for passenger cars as well as synthetic blends, transmission fluid, hydraulics oils and more.

Delfin produces a complete line of automotive and industrial lubricants marketed primarily under the Spectrol brand name.