NEW YORK, Jan 29 Tesoro Corp. on Monday said it agreed to buy a Los Angeles-area refinery

NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) Tesoro Corp. on Monday said it agreed to buy a Los Angeles-area refinery and 250 service stations from Royal Dutch Shell Plc's Shell Oil Products US for $1.63 billion plus the value of petroleum inventory at the time of closing.

The company said at current prices, the inventory would be worth $180 million to $200 million.

Shell's Wilmington refinery, located south of Los Angeles, is a 100,000 barrel per day heavy, sour crude refinery.

Tesoro also said it would buy 140 retail sites located primarily in California, a terminal located in New Mexico and select sites in other states from independent marketer USA Petroleum for $277 million, plus the value of inventory.

REUTERS SBA DB2042