Efforts to develop two new refineries in Eastern Montana are in the works. Last week, I spoke with representatives from Quantum Energy at the Energy Expo in Billings during our two days of live statewide radio show from the event.
On Thursday, Quantum Energy CEO Andrew Kacic told me about the effort to build refineries in Fairview and Baker, Montana. On Friday, Reuters filed this report: The Bakken Clean Energy Project
Each facility would run about 100,000 barrels per day through a stabilizer and subsequently refine 20,000 barrels per day into household gas, diesel fuel and other petrochemicals.
Quantum Energy will fund its projects with a blend of equity and debt financing, Smith said, and the company expects that each processing center would cost about $500 million.
CEO Andrew Kacic tells me that the proposed refineries are modeled after the new refinery in Dickinson, ND- the first refinery to be built since 1976.
Kacic: “What we’re adding to that is the CO2 recapture. Of course what it does to a community is give you energy independence on the diesel side. It produces propane, which of course the residences and farmers as well as industry uses- so its a reall game changer for a town and a community and a state.”
Here’s what I also find interesting: new refineries simply haven’t been built in this country due to the EPA and federal regulations. Now, we may see some of these $350 million “micro” refineries built which can bypass some of the more stringent EPA regulations.
Kacic: “It’s a lot more expensive (for larger refineries), not that $350 million is cheap by any means, but the cost comes up dramatically and you cross into the hundreds of millions of dollars in addition to the 350 to go any larger than that- and again, because of all of the regulations you need for refineries of that size.”
Click below for the full audio with Quantum Energy CEO Andrew Kacic on Voices of Montana from the Energy Expo in Billings, Montana.
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Comments
Tuesday, July 01, 2014 9:45 AM
Building local refineries for Bakken oil is probably the best idea I have heard in years. With the outrageously high cost of Diesel and Propane, a little relief sounds like a better than good idea. Plus, refineries provide many steady full time jobs.
The fuel can be transported in the existing pipelines which crisscross America, and provide the majority of the fuel for local distribution.
It is a hackneyed phrase, but Eastern Montana refineries are a win-win proposition.