On May 29, Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee provided Petroleum News with an update to the information released at Tesoro’s May 3 earnings conference call, and relayed in the adjacent article.
Barbee said “under the existing permit” Tesoro has authorization to bring as much as 50,000 barrels a day of Bakken crude into its soon-to-be-operational Anacortes, Wash., rail facility, which will capable of handling 60,000 bpd.
“At this time, we have not sought permitting for additional capacity,” Barbee said, but once completed, “we intend to maximize the use of our facility.”
At least 30,000 bpd of the Bakken oil will be used at Tesoro’s Anacortes refinery, replacing the same amount of Alaska North Slope crude currently being used as feedstock. North Slope oil is heavier and more expensive than the lighter, sweeter Bakken oil.
As far as shipping Bakken oil from Anacortes to the company’s Kenai refinery in Southcentral Alaska, Barbee said, “We have not communicated any plans to send Bakken crude oil to any of our other locations; however we are always evaluating opportunities that will allow us to deliver on our core business strategy of commercial excellence.”
When asked to confirm that Tesoro was optimistic about the chances of Apache, Hilcorp, Furie and Buccaneer finding more oil reserves in South-central Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin, Barbee said, “We remain optimistic additional reserves will be available in the region, but (we) are diversified in our crude slate at our Kenai refinery in order to maximize opportunity and minimize impact of declining North Slope production,” likely referring to the combination of foreign, North Slope and Cook Inlet crude currently being refined at the facility.
—Kay Cashman
