Tesoro Alaska throughput up for 2010

Tesoro Corp. moved 53,400 barrels of oil per day through its Alaska operation in 2010, up 5.5 percent from 2009, a slight bump after several years of declining throughput.

The increase is mostly the result of a planned turnaround in 2009 that reduced throughput to 50,600 bpd. Tesoro moved 55,600 bpd in Alaska in 2008 and 61,800 bpd in 2007.

Tesoro operates a 72,000 bpd oil refinery on the Kenai Peninsula that processes mostly Alaska oil, but also some foreign supplies. Tesoro also operates a 120,000 bpd oil refinery in Anacortes, Wash., that processes Alaska North Slope and other oil supplies.

Those two facilities refined 93,000 bpd in 2010, down from 135,000 bpd in 2009 and 159,000 bpd in 2008. Tesoro reported gross refining margins from the two facilities were $367 million (or $10.84 per barrel) in 2010, down from $376 million (or $7.65 per barrel) in 2009 and $396 million (or $6.82 per barrel) in 2008. Costs increased as well to $5.88 per barrel in 2010, up from $3.81 per barrel in 2009 and $3.99 per barrel in 2008.

Tesoro does not break out margins by facility.

Tesoro also owns 75 retail stations in Alaska.

—Eric Lidji