Tesoro’s chief
operating officer quits

Tesoro Corp., a U.S. oil refiner, said Chief Operating Officer William T. Van Kleef is resigning and will be replaced by Bill Finnerty, the company's senior vice president of supply and distribution.

Van Kleef, 52, resigned to spend more time with his family, spokeswoman Tara Payne said. Van Kleef had been with Tesoro since 1993 and chief operating officer since July 1998, the San Antonio-based company said in a statement.

Finnerty, 55, joined Tesoro in 2003 from ChevronTexaco Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil company, and was named Tesoro's senior vice president of supply in early 2004, the company said. Everett Lewis, 56, was promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president of planning, Tesoro said.

Meanwhile, a power outage at a refinery in Hawaii and a smaller-than-expected difference last month between crude-oil costs and fuel prices also reduced earnings, Tesoro said.

Net income was about 5 cents to 10 cents a share in the fourth quarter, Tesoro said Jan 14. The company was expected to earn 42 cents a share, the average estimate from 18 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Costs related to work on oil-processing equipment at Tesoro's largest refinery, the Golden Eagle plant in Martinez, Calif., cut fourth-quarter net income by 10 cents a share, the company said.

The refiner had a per-share loss of 12 cents in 2003's fourth quarter.

Shares of Tesoro fell 76 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $29.55 on Jan. 14 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after the company indicated fourth-quarter profit was smaller than analysts expected. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The company's stock has jumped about 94 percent in the past year.

Tesoro operates six refineries with a combined capacity of about 560,000 barrels of oil a day.