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To: Izzy Dunne
Is there a technical reason we cannot build refineries in Montana, ND, etc.?

No, we have five refineries already in North Dakota and Montana.

But we are not short on refinery capacity. The US has become a net refined product exporter. We are short on refinery input, not refineries.

What we would also need to build, if we built a 500,000 BPD refinery near the Canadian Border, is refined product pipeline instead of the crude oil / bitumen pipeline. The demand for that refined product in that quantities is still going to be a lot of pipeline.

Refineries also produce more than gasoline / diesel / jet fuel. They produce chemical plant feedstock and that market is mostly down at the Gulf Coast.

They also produce refinery "leftovers" that don't ship by pipeline, petroleum coke or residual oil. That market is far away as well.

A modern refinery requires hydrogen for multiple units. Around the Gulf Coast we have Hydrogen Pipelines so that not every refinery needs to produce their own. But a new large refinery up there would have to add hydrogen generation units as well.

A large refinery also requires a significant amount of electrical power. That would have to be added if you are not going to use an existing refinery.

Bottom line, it would cost a lot more money to build a new infrastructure along with the new refinery compared to building the pipeline to the existing infrastructure.

18 posted on 11/10/2011 2:48:08 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

The last new refinery built in the USA was more than thirty years ago. Hyperion Oil of Texas plans to begin construction of a new ultra-sophisticated refinery in Union County, South Dakota (about 50 miles north of Sioux Falls), at a cost of billions. If all goes well, and it has been in the planning stage for five years, it will be operational in 2017.


31 posted on 11/10/2011 3:39:22 PM PST by Melchior
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To: thackney
Bottom line, it would cost a lot more money to build a new infrastructure along with the new refinery compared to building the pipeline to the existing infrastructure.

The flip side is that, should Alberta ever build out refinery capacity for its production, then the Texas advantage will disappear. This is analogous, perhaps, to the potential decline of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.

32 posted on 11/10/2011 3:44:13 PM PST by Praxeologue
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