Tesoro Corp. said it hopes to swing from a loss to a profit at its Hawai'i refinery in the current quarter given improvements its been making to the Campbell Industrial Park operation.

The company's executives told analysts and investors on a conference call that it has been pleased with the progress it's been making at the refinery, which had a negative gross refining margin during the second quarter. Tesoro has been working on profitability initiatives at the refinery, which is the only one of its seven refineries that lost money on a gross refining margin basis during the recent quarter.

"But that certainly looks like we may have passed the point where, at least where we've been losing money, where we have a good chance of making money now in the third quarter," Tesoro Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Smith on the call.