Tesoro Corp. officials told the state they expect to lay off 210 workers in May when they shut down the company’s refinery in Kapolei, more than the 180 to 200 employees they previously estimated.
Tesoro announced Jan. 8 that it plans to close the refinery and convert it into an import, storage and distribution terminal.
The updated layoff count was included in a letter Tesoro sent Feb. 28 to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Federal law requires employers to provide notice at least 60 days in advance of layoffs of 100 workers or more.
"At this time the company anticipates that a group of affected employees will be terminated sometime during a 14-day period beginning on May 1, 2013," according to the notification letter from Thomas Weber, vice president of Tesoro’s Kapolei refinery.
"This announcement and the above timetable are based on the best information currently available," Weber wrote. "However, various factors may still affect these plans and the timing of employee separations."
Tesoro is working to find other positions for the affected workers at one of its mainland operations, spokeswoman Tina Barbee said in an email. Tesoro also is providing employees with a variety of transitional services, such as résumé writing, job fairs and skills development workshops, she said.
San Antonio-based Tesoro had been trying to sell the underperforming refinery since January 2012 but was not able to find a buyer.
"We put the Hawaii operations up for sale with the full intention of finding a buyer willing to maintain the facility as a refinery," Barbee said. "Market conditions did not present a qualified buyer and the decision to convert the facility to a terminal was made as part of our stated strategic plan to focus on the Mid-Continent and West Coast markets," she said.
Barbee would not comment further on Tesoro’s efforts to sell the terminal operations and its local network of 31 gas stations.
The Tesoro facility is the larger of two refineries in Hawaii, with a capacity of 94,000 barrels a day. It employs 240 people.
