Tesoro Refineries
Salt Lake City Refinery

Salt Lake City Refinery
Facts & Figures



Rated crude oil capacity:
58,000 barrels per day

Product slate:
Gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel

Feedstocks:
Locally sourced crude oils and, at times, Canadian Light Sweet or Syncrude

Acreage and location:
145 acres, in Salt Lake City, Utah

Number of employees:
Approximately 205

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Tesoro's Salt Lake City refinery is the largest of Utah's five refineries and, in 2008, will celebrate 100 years of business. Originally constructed in 1908, it was the first refinery in the Salt Lake City area and produced lubricating oils, harness dressings and lamp oil for local businesses. The refinery was initially built to process seven barrels per day of Wyoming crude oil. It has been expanded and updated many times since and was acquired by Tesoro in 2001.

Today, the refinery is situated on 145 acres and processes crude oils from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Canada. With a total crude-oil capacity of 58,000 barrels per day, the refinery manufactures gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heavy fuel oils and liquefied petroleum gas.

Products from the refinery are distributed through a system of company-owned and third-party terminals and third-party pipeline connections, primarily to high-growth markets in Utah, Idaho and eastern Washington, with some refined product delivered in Nevada and Wyoming. It also supplies jet fuel to the Salt Lake City International Airport.

In addition to sales at the refinery, refined products are distributed to customers through a third-party pipeline to our own terminals in Boise and Burley, Idaho, and to third-party terminals in Pocatello, Idaho, and Pasco, Washington. The refinery's customer base includes more than 40 company-owned Tesoro® and Mirastar® stations. The refinery supplies more than 115 Tesoro branded stations located in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and western Colorado that are operated by jobbers or wholesale distributors.

Environment. The protection of the environment is a priority at Tesoro, and the Salt Lake City refinery has consistently demonstrated its commitment to environmental stewardship. In 2004, Tesoro commissioned a modern and environmentally beneficial cogeneration project that utilizes natural gas and refinery self-produced fuel gas to manufacture multiple sources of energy. Altogether, the clean-operating cogeneration facility reduces air emissions from the refinery by more than 500 tons per year.

In 2005 and 2006, Tesoro completed the installation and upgrades of a new diesel desulfurization unit to produce 11,000 barrels per day (bpd) of ultra low sulfur on-road diesel fuel. A project is currently underway to expand the unit further to 13,500 bpd to comply with new off-road diesel sulfur requirements. This expansion is scheduled for completion in early 2008.

In addition, the Salt Lake City refinery has reduced criteria air pollutant emissions by 70 percent since 1993.

Health and Safety. Tesoro's vigilant safety programs have contributed to continuing improvement in employee safety. This can be seen in our 45 percent reduction in the injury rate since 2004. In 2006, we posted the lowest Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable incident rate in our history. In 2006, the Utah Safety Council recognized Tesoro's Salt Lake City refinery with an Award of Merit. To be considered, an organization must have an incident rate lower than the national average for its industry, demonstrate continuous safety improvement or sustained levels of excellence, and have essential elements of a safety program in place.

Consistent with such emphasis, the Salt Lake City refinery received numerous awards for outstanding safety performance from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association in 2006, including:

The Gold Award, which recognizes facilities that have reduced by 25 percent or more their total recordable incident rate with no workplace-related fatality of an employee or non-employee
during the calendar year, as compared to the average total recordable incident rates for the three previous calendar years.

The Meritorious Safety Performance Award for achieving a total recordable incident rate of 1.2 or less with no workplace-related fatality of an employee or non-employee during the calendar year.

The Award for Safety Achievement: 1,000,000+ Employee Hours, which acknowledges facilities for operating 1 million or more employee hours without an employee lost workday case involving days away from work and without a workplace-related fatality of an employee or non-employee during the evaluation period.

The Award for Safety Achievement: 1+ Years, recognizing our facility for operating one or more years without an employee lost workday case involving days away from work and without a workplace-related fatality of an employee or non-employee during the evaluation period.

Community. Tesoro's Salt Lake City refinery is one of the leading contributors to the United Way of Salt Lake, donating more than $1 million over nearly 20 years. Our employees are committed to investing in the community in which they live and work. Their support, both financial and time, go to local organizations such as Toys for Tots, the American Red Cross, Junior Achievement, 4H and Utah's Safety Council. In addition, the management of the refinery sits on various organizational and community Boards of Directors.

Supporting our focus on education, Tesoro inspires future chemical or petroleum engineers by sponsoring Reaction Time, a school outreach program developed by The Children's Museum of Utah. This hands-on science program lets students experience what happens when various everyday household products are combined—with adult supervision, of course. To encourage academic excellence in our community, Tesoro's popular Gallons for Grades™ program uses Tesoro fuelCards™ for free gasoline as an incentive. Qualified high-school and college students in Salt Lake City are awarded $2 for each A and $1 for each B on their report cards.