Tesoro to close Anacortes refinery for work

NEW YORK Dec 17 (Reuters) - Tesoro Corp. said it would shut down all the units at its 120,000 barrel per day refinery in Anacortes, Washington for maintenance early next year due to poor margins.

"We had some other maintenance that we needed to do that can only be done with a plant-wide shutdown," said Sarah Simpson, a spokeswoman for the company.

"With the current environment of low demand and low margins, we decided to do the maintenance during the first part of the year."

Traders said that work was originally planned on the crude unit for mid-January, but weak demand and poor margins were instrumental in Tesoro closing the entire plant. (Reporting by Janet McGurty; Editing by Marguerita Choy)