Marathon Los Angeles Refinery Modernization Projects

Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, LLC doing business as Marathon Los Angeles Refinery, proposes to modernize its Marathon Los Angeles Refinery (Refinery), which is comprised of its Carson Operations and Wilmington Operations, for the purpose of: replacing equipment that is at the end of its useful life; providing asphalt binder to meet market demand; enabling flexibility by making modifications to specific processing units to adjust product yields between transportation fuel products (i.e., gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel), depending on market demand; and more efficiently producing octane-blending components needed for gasoline supply. Specifically, Tesoro is proposing modifications to: 1) replace aging coke drums; 2) produce asphalt binder; 3) improve operational performance of the Fluid Feed Hydrodesulfurization Unit which removes sulfur from the gas oil feed before it goes to the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), and 4) improve efficiency to make more high-octane, low vapor pressure clean-gasoline blendstocks by modifying the: a. FCCU which converts heavy hydrocarbons into gasoline and other lighter hydrocarbons, b. alkylation units which convert lighter hydrocarbons into blendstocks for gasoline, and c. the C3 Splitter Unit which separates propane and propylene (compounds containing three carbon molecules) for further processing elsewhere or sold as product. Each of these proposed projects are designed to ensure continued safe operations and provide a reliable and affordable supply of transportation fuels to meet the market shift during California’s transition to a zero-emission transportation system. The four proposed projects fulfill different needs at the Refinery, such that any single project can occur without any of the other three projects and have independent utility. However, because each project will have an overlapping construction schedule, the projects are evaluated altogether. The NOP/IS identifies potentially significant adverse impacts to the environmental topics of air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology and water quality related to water demand during operations, noise during construction, and transportation during construction. This facility is identified on lists compiled by the California Department of Toxics Substances Control per Government Code Section 65962.5.