Tesoro earnings
drop 8.5%

Tesoro Petroleum Corp., a San Antonio-based company whose businesses include Hawaii's biggest oil refinery and 34 gasoline stations in the islands, yesterday reported a third-quarter profit of $64.6 million, or 93 cents a share, down 8.5 percent from $70.6 million, or $1.09 a share, a year earlier.

Revenues rose 43 percent to $3.3 billion from $2.3 billion.

The company said the most recent quarter was affected by early debt repayment charges and higher costs from maintenance at the company's 160,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Martinez, Calif.

"Throughput (the number of barrels per day) and the quarter's financial results could have meaningfully been better without the planned coker (shutdown) at Golden Eagle", said Tesoro Chairman Bruce Smith, who also serves as president and chief executive officer.

Because of the shutdown, Tesoro had to buy higher-priced sweet crude and intermediate feedstocks, Smith said, estimating that the company lost the opportunity to generate another $34 million of operating income.

The company, which operates six refineries in the western United States, entered the Hawaii market in March 1999 when it bought BHP Hawaii -- along with its Barbers Point refinery and the BHP Gas Express retail gasoline stations -- for $325 million.