Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, LLC Settlement, June 2015
Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, LLC Case Settles for $50,000
In July 2015, Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company paid $50,000 in penalties for violating California Reformulated Gasoline Standards in the California gasoline fuel regulation. On March 9 and March 18, 2013 Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company (“Tesoro”) in Martinez, California submitted two predictive model (PM) notifications for two batches of California Reformulated Gasoline Blendstock for Oxygen Blending (CARBOB). The reported property values in each of the submitted reports for the CARBOB blends contained values that resulted in the batches being unable to pass the CARBOB Model calculator. The two batches were subsequently sold before the amended notifications were received by ARB. The violations were discovered by ARB staff during routine checking of the accuracy of the incoming notifications by entering the submitted PM values into ARB’s CARBOB PM Calculator. Tesoro cooperated fully throughout the investigation and it was discovered that the violations occurred because of a flaw in their computer software which allowed low RVP winter gasoline. They have since corrected the flaw and review of past notifications showed no other violations due to the flaw.