Tesoro site visit

Representative Kyle Yamashita (left) and Representative Tom Brower went on a ship-to-shore tour of Tesoro's refinery and crude oil receiving facilities on Thursday, December 17th. The tour began with a briefing at the Tesoro Kapolei refinery on renewable energy initiatives and an overview of its maritime operations.

Left to right: Rep. Kyle Yamashita, Rep. Tom Brower, Lyle Wong from the Dept. of Agriculture, Sandra Lee Kunimoto, Chairman of the Board of Agriculture, and Melissa Pavlicek, Hawaii Public Policy Advocates.

The group got an up close and personal view of an oil tanker unloading crude oil at the Tesoro single point mooring (SPM). All crude is received via an offshore terminal located 1.7 miles south of Barber's Point.

Vessels tie up to a specially designed buoy instead of a dock. The tie-up is with a 206-foot-long mooring hawser with a breaking strain of 1,670,632 lbs. The single point mooring buoy is anchored in place with six anchors. Underwater pipes lead from the refinery to the buoy. Floating hoses lead from the buoy to the tankers.