Refineries

With numerous roadblocks to energy development on Native American tribal lands, the complex industrial development that accompanies petroleum refineries may be a way for some tribes to get into the energy sector in a big way, according to Denver-based attorney.

The would-be developer of a major new refinery complex in South Texas aims to come between Eagle Ford Shale crude supply and Mexico’s demand for gasoline and other fuels. The project would be the first major Texas refinery built in decades.

The Obama administration and Ohio-based refinery operator Marathon Petroleum Corp. said on Thursday they have reached an agreement under which Marathon will spend nearly $335 million to reduce gas flare air pollution at its refineries in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Robust crude oil production driven by the shale revolution has produced significant increases in the railroad shipment of oil, and in the next few years that means an almost quantum leap in shipments to California’s major West Coast refineries, according to state energy projections. In two years, more than a quarter of the oil processed is expected to come via rail.

After capturing a healthy and growing share of Canadian natural gas consumption with shale production from the United States, exploration and production companies are poised to repeat the feat in oil markets.

Major environmental groups leading opposition to the northern portion of the proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region lashed out at the U.S. State Department last Friday for not making public the comments being collected on the project’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement (see Shale Daily, March 4). Effectively, the only way to hear and respond to public comments on the draft study will be at a hearing scheduled for April 18 in Grand Island, NB, said a Friends of the Earth spokesperson, calling the move “unusual.” This is prompting the foes of Keystone XL to claim the State Department is violating public transparency practices followed by other federal agencies regarding draft environmental studies. The stakeholders are in the middle of a 45-day comment period on the proposed northern portion of TransCanada Corp.’s controversial tar sands oil pipeline from Western Canada to Cushing, OK.

Nebraska environmental officials on Friday issued a final evaluation report regarding TransCanada Corp.’s alternative route for the norethern portion of its proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. The rerouting avoids environmentally sensitive areas in the Sand Hills region of the state, and carries 57 special conditions that TransCanada has agreed to fulfill.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is reportedly seeking up to $1.675 billion in tax credits over the next 25 years for Royal Dutch Shell plc and other companies willing to locate an ethane cracker in the state.

The promised re-application of a newly split two-part Keystone XL oil pipeline project to the U.S. State Department is still six to eight weeks away, a Calgary, Alberta-based spokesperson for TransCanada Corp. told NGI’s Shale Daily.