Tesoro Delays Upgrade Project at Mandan Refinery

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) (San Antonio, Texas) has delayed the upgrade project at the 58,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery in Mandan, North Dakota. The upgrade project was originally scheduled to begin construction in late 2008, finishing in spring 2009. The company has decided to delay the upgrade project until spring 2010 because of the downturn in the refining market. Tesoro is also re-evaluating the scope of the upgrade project.

The project will incrementally increase capacity of the existing 12,000-BBL/d diesel hydrotreater to 14,000 BBL/d. In addition, Tesoro will upgrade the existing 12,000-BBL/d reformer unit (Ultraformer Design) by replacing reactors in order to improve reliability. Tesoro has chosen Unifield Engineering (Billings, Montana) to perform engineering and procurement services. The contractors chosen to do the work are Weston Industries (Bismarck, North Dakota), Construction Turnaround Services (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Gagnon Insulation (Saint Paul, Minnesota), Miller Insulation (Bismarck), and Skeels Electric (Bismarck).

Tesoro was founded in 1968 as a company primarily engaged in petroleum exploration and production. Today, Tesoro is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest independent petroleum refiners and marketers in the U.S. Tesoro operate six refineries in the United States. These are located in Martinez, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Mandan, North Dakota; Kenai, Alaska; Kapolei, Hawaii; and Anacortes, Washington. The company has a combined crude oil capacity of 558,000 BBL/d and employs more than 4,000 people.

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