By Brian Hews
For the past fifteen years, La Palma has benefited from the receipt of significant sales tax revenue from BP’s fuel sales group being located within the City. Then BP announced it was selling to Tesoro and could possibly move.
The City learned this week that State and Federal authorities have cleared the way for the purchase of British Petroleum’s (BP’s) Carson refinery by Tesoro Corporation of Texas. The transfer will be effective June 1, 2013.
In February, the City approved an operating agreement with Tesoro to locate offices within La Palma.
City Manager Ellen Volmert said, “Approval of the sale to Tesoro is very good news for the City. The City welcomes Tesoro and looks forward to a long-term and positive working relationship, just like the City had with BP.”
Kamela Harris, the State Attorney General reports that Tesoro has agreed to preserve California jobs, help protect consumers from gas price spikes, and require environmental retrofitting of the state’s largest oil refinery.
Harris had sought to preserve jobs and protect the environment in the agreement. The San Antonio company said that employees of BP’s Carson refinery and Tesoro’s smaller Wilmington refinery would have their jobs protected for two years.
But others were not so lucky. BP -Arco said it will shed about 250 employees in La Palma after it sells its refinery in Carson and its 800 or so Arco service stations to Tesoro.
BP-Arco had about 350 employees occupying about 80,000 square feet at the Centerpointe office park in La Palma. Tesoro is expected to keep about 95 employees in the city as it moves to another Centerpointe building, with plans to take about 20,000 square feet.