Tesoro buys BP Amoco’s West Coast fuels operations

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Tesoro Petroleum Corp. said May 10 that a Houston-based subsidiary, Tesoro Marine Services, has agreed to purchase the West Coast marine fuels operations of BP Marine, a division of BP Amoco. Purchase price was not disclosed.

Tesoro said that transaction closing, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, is expected to occur within the next 45 days.

Included in the purchase are facilities in Port Angeles, Wash., Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles, Calif. Total capacity of the terminal facilities is 605,000 barrels. Tesoro will supply BP with marine fuels as part of this transaction, allowing BP to continue to service its global fuels customers along the West Coast.

Tesoro Marine Services President Don Nyberg said in a statement that the purchase will allow Tesoro to “further integrate and build synergies among its downstream businesses while at the same time enhancing the value of its 1998 acquisitions of two refineries in Hawaii and Washington, in addition to its Alaska refinery.”

An important aspect of the purchase, Nyberg said, is that it will allow Tesoro to take the majority of its own fuel oil production direct to end users, making it one of the three largest marine supplies along the West Coast.

Locally, Tesoro Alaska president Steve Ricks told PNA that while Tesoro’s purchase is a tremendous benefit to the company as a whole, the acquisition would have little impact on operations in Alaska.