Tesoro Petroleum Corp

Fuel maker Tesoro Corp. on Tuesday sued California air regulators to block a new regulation that is expected to sharply boost ethanol use in the state's gasoline starting in 2010. The San Antonio-based company, which operates refineries in Los Angeles and the Bay Area city of Martinez, said the new fuel specifications could conflict with the state's push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and could have ramifications for the environment and U.S. food prices.

A San Antonio oil refiner is shaking up California's gasoline business by agreeing Monday to buy Shell Oil Co.'s Wilmington refinery and 390 Shell and USA gasoline stations for more than $2 billion. Tesoro Corp.'s buying spree, laid out in two separate deals, would make it California's second-largest refiner, and marks the company's return to the state's retail fuel market.

Federal antitrust regulators have cleared the sale of Shell Oil Co.'s Wilmington refinery and 250 retail sites in Southern California to independent oil company Tesoro Corp. According to a notice issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the government has completed its investigation of the sale and ended a waiting period on the transaction. San Antonio-based Tesoro and Houston-based Shell, a division of Royal Dutch Shell, announced the sale Jan. 29.

The refinery looms above a hardscrabble Wilmington neighborhood, a tangle of hundreds of miles of dingy pipes and industrial structures clustered into 308 fuel-making acres. But to Tesoro Corp., the complex looks like gold. Late last month, Tesoro -- "treasure" in Spanish -- closed its purchase of Shell Oil Co.'s Wilmington refinery with a round of celebratory barbecues for the plant's 500 employees.

Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. plans a $1.4-billion tender offer to acquire a 16% stake in Tesoro Corp., a U.S. refiner whose profit jumped tenfold in the last four years as gasoline demand and prices climbed. The offer will be for 21.9 million shares of San Antonio-based Tesoro at $64 each, Los Angeles-based Tracinda said Friday. The price is 12% higher than Thursday's close. Kerkorian, a 90-year-old billionaire, would become Tesoro's largest shareholder, with a 20% stake.

Tesoro Corp. said its board would review an unsolicited $1.4-billion offer by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian to buy an additional 16% stake in the oil refiner. The Tesoro board will review the offer over the next 10 days, the company said. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp., which already owns 4% of the company, offered Friday to buy an additional 21.9 million shares for $64 a piece, 12% more the stock's closing price Thursday.

Tesoro Corp., a U.S. refiner targeted in a $1.4-billion tender offer by Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp., suggested giving a Tracinda representative a seat on its board. Tesoro Chief Executive Bruce Smith, during a Nov. 13 meeting with Tracinda executives in Beverly Hills, said it might be "a good idea" for the investment firm to have a board seat, according to a public filing by Tracinda. San Antonio-based Tesoro also suggested entering into a shareholder agreement with the firm.

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. suggested it may withdraw its $1.4-billion tender offer for 16% of Tesoro Corp. after the refinery owner adopted a stockholder-rights plan that Tracinda said violates a condition of the bid. Shares of Tesoro fell 7.6% on Monday. The rights plan "significantly limits opportunities to enhance stockholder value," Tracinda said in a statement. Tracinda also said it was "weighing its alternatives."

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. on Tuesday withdrew its $1.4-billion tender offer for 16% of Tesoro Corp., citing a stockholder-rights plan adopted by the oil refiner. Shares of Tesoro fell almost 6%. The rights plan "inhibits value for all Tesoro shareholders by, among other things, restricting the ability of shareholders to vote, sell or acquire Tesoro shares freely without fear of triggering the draconian provisions of the rights plan," Beverly Hills-based Tracinda said.

Tesoro Corp., the second-largest oil refiner on the West Coast, said a fire Wednesday shut a fluid catalytic cracking unit at its refinery near San Francisco. The fire started about 4:15 p.m. and was extinguished by 5:05 p.m. by the refinery's emergency personnel, said Sarah Simpson, a spokeswoman at Tesoro's San Antonio headquarters. She didn't know how long the unit would be shut. There were no injuries and no effect on the surrounding community, Simpson said.