This is a most fascinating story, the link sent by a reader (thank you).
Argus Media is reporting:
Tesoro will deliver 1.6 million bbls of Bakken crude into its Alaska refining
system in the first half of 2015.
Bakken offers a $5/bl to
$7/bl advantage to the west coast benchmark Alaskan North Slope (ANS) in
the US independent refiner's predominantly west coast system.
Tesoro
is the last major fuels refiner operating in Alaska. Its 72,000 b/d
refinery in Kenai, Alaska, southwest of Anchorage in Cook Inlet,
supplies jet fuel, gasoline and diesel, including to Flint Hills
Resources, which shut down its North Pole refinery last year.
Tesoro has
previously said it can run 20,000 b/d to 30,000 b/d of Bakken crude at
Kenai with little modification. The facility was built to run on Cook
Inlet crude and similar light, sweet crudes.
Tesoro plans to use a
360,000 b/d proposed rail offloading terminal in Vancouver, Washington,
to supply its west coast refining system including Kenai with greater
volumes of Bakken crudes. That facility continues to inch through a
state permitting process chief executive Greg Goff called "painfully
slow" during a morning conference call to discuss earnings.
Tesoro
now expects a draft environmental report from the commission this
summer, with a final ruling by a state energy site review commission
and, ultimately, the governor to follow.
"But at the end of the day, we're somewhat at the mercy of how that progresses," Goff said.
I'm not holding my breath.
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