Data points:
- Three Affiliated Tribes project; to be located near Makoti, southwest Ward County
- Corval Group, St Paul, MN: business plan and finances; has an office in Beulah, ND
- ASRC Energy Services, Alaska: expertise in engineering and operations;
- 15,000 bopd --> diesel, propane, and naphtha products
- naphtha is a pipeline diluent for Canadian oil sands oil
- estimated: $370 million
ASRC Energy Services, based in Anchorage, Alaska, is a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a private, for-profit Alaska Native owned corporation representing the interests of 11,000 Inupiant Eskimos, and considered one of the most successful corporations in Alaska. Mayer said ASRC, the parent company of ASRC Energy Services, has two refineries in Alaska one at North Pole and the other at Valdez. Both are located along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Mayer said the refinery at Valdez, built in the early 1990s, was the last refinery built in the U.S.And,
The Three Affiliated Tribes' refinery will be the first refinery built in the contiguous United States in many years. The last one was built in Garyville, La., and began operating in 1976.Unless something has changed, the 20,000 bopd refinery near Trenton, ND, was farthest along in the process; MDU is also planning to open a 20,000 bopd refinery near Dickinson, ND; it will be interesting to see which of the three is "first.
COMMENTARY -- READ AT OWN RISK
And for folks who wonder why I harp on the Feds slow-rolling the industry and why I do not look upon the EPA as "in touch with reality" -- not my words, those of the API:
Since early 2000, the Three Affiliated Tribes have been working on the refinery project, a project initiated by Tex Hall, tribal chairman, and approved by the tribal business council. The initial feed study was conducted in 2002-2003. However, it has taken a number of years for the tribes to obtain the environmental clearances.The initial study was conducted in 2003 and the EPA only just issued the final permit last year, eight years later. I wonder if there was any value added to the EPA review?
In August 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency issued the final permit for the refinery, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, to the tribes. Late last year the EPA reissued portions of the permit.
But is it really the final permit?
Mayer said the commentary on the NPDES operating permit has closed and they are waiting for the final EPA review and issuance.If the EPA has issued the permit, why is there still talk of a "final EPA review and issuance"? How exactly is the EPA delivering this permit to the company? Or does TAT have the permit but have not yet sent a copy to the company?
Indian Reservations have so many disadvantages: Federal jurisdiction over environmental permitting, lack of property rights, and lack of capital.
ReplyDeleteThe EPA had to write their own regulations for a refinery permit process. This was the same EPA that mandated writing the permitting regulations for all states and territories, but never bothered to write them for their own jurisdictions.
The federal cost of the Three Affiliated tribes permit must be astronomical.
That's an excellent point. I don't know how many folks recall that the EPA mandated states to write permitting regulations but then when it was time for the EPA to issue a permit for a company on federal land, it was noted that the EPA had not written its own permitting regulations. I could be wrong (it's been a long time) but I wonder if this wasn't part of the hold up for the TAT permit. I forget.
DeleteEven on Federal Land, states have permitting authority (but the state's permitting requirements must be at least as strict as the EPA's guidelines set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations.) If the state's regulations are deemed as too lax or if the state is not enforcing the regulations, the EPA has the power to step in with its own permitting system.
ReplyDeleteOn Sovereign Nation land, i.e. Indian Reservations, Federal environmental regulations apply and the EPA actually does the permitting. The EPA had to write its own permit regulations - what it had didn't detail how a permit gets issued - for new refineries (something states had long since done). The whole process of the EPA formally issuing permit requirements can take 2-3 years.
Thank you. I vaguely remembered the issue but not the details. Amazing how long the process can take, and I doubt there is a whole lot of value added.
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