Sinclair Refinery Expansion

[cannon_fodder]

Sinclair Oil, the 38th Largest private company in the US, has decided to invest $1,000,000,000.00+ in its Tulsa Refinery.  Sinclair owns 1000 miles of pipeline, exploration sites, and 3 high end western resort hotels as well as 3 refineries (2 @ 60,000 Barrels a day and one in Sinclair Wyoming at 20K).  

The investment in the Tulsa plant is purported to nearly double capacity AND halve total emissions levels.  In addition to cleaner air, employment is likely to increase by 200 positions... not to mention the massive construction effort over the next 3 years.  Construction is going to begin early in 2008 and may last up to three years.

The official announcement is to come at 11:30 today.  I found nothing on the Sinclairoil.com website as of yet.

[ttown_jeff]

This is good news.

But I hope it doesn't disturb happy hour on the river.  I hate sipping my mint juleps with all that pesky industry going on.  It's not good, socially. Hard to hear my friends tell their stupid jokes.  []

[waterboy]

So that's why they've been buying up property over there. Maybe they'll make gasoline we could actually use here in Tulsa.

[TheArtist]

Wow, this is some great news. Tulsa snags a billion dollar investment and cleaner air. We are so fortunate to have that old oil money legacy still paying off. Its amazing even all these years later. Sometimes when I have taken visitors from out of town along the River Parks they have commented. "Wow, whats that!?" I tell them thats big oil, thats money, thats what made Tulsa, Tulsa. Without that we wouldnt have half of what we have here. They say "Cool." I think they look kind of neat, especially at night. If anything they definitely help give Tulsa that "unique sense of place and identity" lol. We are a city that was built on oil after all.

[sgrizzle]

http://tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070906_1_A1_hAhug03120

-60% increase in output
-Significantly reduced emissions and smell
-Flares hidden from view
-200ish new jobs

[cks511]

And they'll have a nice new 41st street bridge to travel across, it's all coming together..lol

[aoxamaxoa]

For that much investment they could move it far away and clean up what they left us.....

Good location for an amusement park.

Great jobs to boot. Should knock down the downtown vacancy rates.

Do you believe what they tell you?

I sure as hell don't.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by aoxamaxoa

For that much investment they could move it far away and clean up what they left us.....

Good location for an amusement park.

Great jobs to boot. Should knock down the downtown vacancy rates.

Do you believe what they tell you?

I sure as hell don't.

I would imagine cleanup/shutdown costs would be near that. I would like to see a real plot plan though to see how much bigger it will get. Since they are talking about trying to make the plant less noticeable, how about a greenspace barrier and some other requirements for public works/offsets. It sounds like they are basically rebuilding the whole thing, would think they could work that in.

[cannon_fodder]

I know I'm trying not to engage AOX in substantive discussions, but I can't resist here.

A) I was waiting for you to jump in and shout NAY!  I was hoping their would be some substance though. Moving the entire refinery, tank farm, and pipelines as well as environmental cleanup on a site that has been an oil refinery for 100 years would cost billions.  

1) If increasing the size by 50% costs ONE BILLION without moving the tank farm or pipelines and having only to purchase a limited amount of new land while operating under existing permits... one would assume rebuilding 100% Capacity + 50% would cost around $2.5 Billion.  

2) BP Pipeline in Cushing just replaced 6 tanks for the cost of $250,000,000... Sinclair would have to tear down and rebuild dozens for a cost of another billion or so.  

3) Pipeline work usually costs about $2mil for every kilometer.  Lets pretend their new location is right on a pipeline and ignore it... it gets expensive fast other wise.

4) Land acquisition... ignore the NIMBLY factor this would add yet more expense.  We shall pretend it is free.

5) Permitting - no new permits have been issued for a refinery in the United States for 30 years.  Even trying to do so would cost tens if not hundreds of millions in legal fess and take a decade.  We'll pretend they can get the permit.

6) Cleanup.  Dear god, this is easily going to run another $250,000,000.00.  This refinery operated for 50 years before the EPA even existed.  They had open pools of oil.  All the land would have to be dug out to a great depth and in filled with the refuse disposed of in HAZMAT sites.  

So other than the fact that it has been impossible for 30 years, the decade it would add to the time frame, and the couple BILLION in added expense.  Good point.
[edit]Prices are at a minimum, to make a point...[/edit]

B) Refinery jobs pay very well.  Why disparage jobs that pay well above average wage and provide great benefits?  Another couple hundred oil hands, pipeline techs, petroleum engineers, and operators will be needed in addition to support staff of firefighters, managers, and office personnel.  Not to mention the hundreds of high paying construction jobs that will be provided for 3 years... these are not generic $10 hammer men brought in, they will be skilled iron workers, crane operators, welders, and journeymen.

C) Great point, it probably will help downtown occupancy rates since this will be the largest asset in Sinclair's inventory (pipelines, 2 other soon to be smaller refineries, gas stations, exploration operation, and few luxury hotels/resorts).  Since they have offices downtown they are not likely to close them so long as they have such a large asset nearby.

D) As always, it seems you have a better source of information than anyone else.  I wish I had your sources, or that you would cite to some very now and then.  
- - - - -

as a side note, I would like to point out that TulsaNow has been picked up by Google Finance as a source for this story:
http://finance.google.com/finance?cid=149509

[TheArtist]

quote:Originally posted by aoxamaxoa

For that much investment they could move it far away and clean up what they left us.....

Good location for an amusement park.

Great jobs to boot. Should knock down the downtown vacancy rates.

Do you believe what they tell you?

I sure as hell don't.

It would take a whooole lot more than a "measly" billion dollars to move and replace what is already there. A new refinery from scratch can cost anywhere from 4 to 12 billion, or more, these days depending on what the refinery is doing and its size. I dont think an amusement park in that area could possibly make as much money as that refinery will.

[aoxamaxoa]

Well we are waist deep in the big muddy and all the fools say push on....

Will the country ever do anything to move us off the big tit of fossil fuels?

[cannon_fodder]

quote:Originally posted by aoxamaxoa

Well we are waist deep in the big muddy and all the fools say push on....

Will the country ever do anything to move us off the big tit of fossil fuels?

Translation:  I was totally wrong, I guess what I said made no sense at all. Thanks for correcting me.  Now lets change the subject quickly and move on.
- - - - -

Sq:  From what I am hearing they will continue to operate the plant at full capacity whenever possible while adding on.  When the initial phase is complete they will do some more work on the older sections, but the older sections have just been "turned around" not long ago.

A green space section would be really appreciated.  It would do loads for their image too.  Lets hope this works out as it seems like it is going to, oil companies seem to realize that they need to improve their image across the board to keep the politicians on their side.

[aoxamaxoa]

Green Space? Give me a break. It would only be noticeable to those flying over it.

Again. Why believe in these creatures?
They do not have your best interest in mind.

They can't build new refineries. So, they will continue to magnify the obnoxiousness of the environmental detriment already here....

[cannon_fodder]

So basically, if news comes out that you do not like (that is good for Tulsa or the US) you just cover your ears and shout "I wont believe it!" What a fantastic way of supporting your world view.

Just 15 minutes ago you were talking about how they should build new refineries, now you say that they can not.  Which is it?

Lets hear your grand plan AOX.  For once, instead of just shouting NAY tell us what you want to happen.  It is, after all, all about you.

[aoxamaxoa]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

So basically, if news comes out that you do not like (that is good for Tulsa or the US) you just cover your ears and shout "I wont believe it!" What a fantastic way of supporting your world view.

Just 15 minutes ago you were talking about how they should build new refineries, now you say that they can not.  Which is it?

Lets hear your grand plan AOX.  For once, instead of just shouting NAY tell us what you want to happen.  It is, after all, all about you.

Establish a %70 federal tax on all income over $250,000.

Use tax shelters for those who want to risk investing in alternative energy and clean energy.

Tax the hell out of polluters and fossil fuel producers.

Refineries are currently unable to relocate. Change that. And curtail their pollution.