PBF Energy Inc. surged a record 14 percent after agreeing to buy a Louisiana crude refinery jointly owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Venezuela’s state-controlled oil company. The transaction, valued at $322 million, will increase PBF’s refining capacity by more than one-third and marks the Parsippany, New Jersey-based company’s first foray into the Gulf Coast, the biggest U.S. crude-processing region. It “represents a significant step in the strategic growth of PBF,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Nimbley said in a statement on Thursday. Executive Chairman Thomas O’Malley, a former oil trader, has spent the last quarter century amassing refining assets and selling them at a premium to bigger operators. Today’s purchase involves a 189,000 barrels-a-day refining and chemicals plant in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette, as well as a patchwork of related pipelines and storage facilities. PBF climbed to $29.97 at the close in New York in the biggest […]