By Kristen Hays, Reuters.

On the heels of last month's Paris agreement to curb carbon emissions, independent refiner Tesoro Corp said it is working with several biofuel companies to run more crude made from renewable plants and waste at its California refineries, the company told Reuters on Tuesda.

Using so-called biocrude from Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc and other partners is intended to lower Tesoro's costs to comply with California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which requires refineries to run more environmentally friendly produced crude.

Rather than build or overhaul units to produce biofuels, Tesoro can blend biocrude into other crudes that feed existing refineries to generate LCFS credits, C.J. Warner, executive vice president of strategy and business development, said.