Tesoro

San Antonio-based Tesoro Logistics LP (TLLP) and its refining parent, Tesoro Corp., see the prospects for continuing growth in midstream endeavors and refining in 2016, following 4Q2015 results that showed solid profits amid continuing low oil and natural gas commodity prices.

San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. said Monday it has closed a previously announced acquisition of various midstream oil assets in the Williston Basin in North Dakota, adding Great Northern Midstream LLC’s assets in the Bakken. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Even with price differentials tightening, Bakken crude oil from North Dakota is going to continue to be attractive to West Coast refineries, the CEO of San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. said Thursday during earnings conference calls for the refiner and midstream logistics operator.

San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp., a major player in the Bakken and other shale plays through its midstream unit, Tesoro Logistics LLP (TLLP), said it will pursue nearly $400 million in two projects at its Anacortes, WA, refinery. One project could enhance future exports of refinery products to Asian markets.

While they are seeing various producers adjusting or delaying capital spending plans in the face of the depressed crude oil prices, senior executives at San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. and its midstream unit, Tesoro Logistics LP (TLLP), refused to blink on Thursday in talking about 2014 results and Tesoro’s plans for this year during an earnings conference call.

A unit of San Antonio-based refiner/transporter Tesoro Corp. started an open season Tuesday for its proposed crude oil processing terminal and pipeline expansion in the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota. The first of the expansions is to be operable by July 1.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Thursday issued a safety order to the Tesoro High Plains Pipeline in response to a recent rupture that resulted in a spill of Bakken crude oil in North Dakota.

Although it happened about a month ago and the situation has been under control, a leak of 20,600 bbl of crude oil in a remote wheat field is still being felt in North Dakota state offices, particularly in the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). It has prompted cries for the public’s need to know.

Industry investment in infrastructure and more emphasis on infill developmental wells are helping to contain North Dakota’s wellhead flaring of natural gas in the oil/liquids-rich Bakken Shale formation, a state official said.