New US oil refinery

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
1

America First Refining (AFR) plans for the $300 billion Brownsville plant to produce and refine billions of gallons of refined oil…The project is situated in a massive deep-water foreign trade zone and will leverage advanced infrastructure and strategic rail and sea connections to transport low-carbon fuels and other energy products…

The company plans to formally break ground on the new refinery in Q2 2026…The refinery is specifically engineered to process American light shale oil…

DB2

5 Likes
2

That is interesting. The light crude is probably a good choice as it is practically diesel fuel when it comes out of the ground. Unless there is a massive infrastructure build out to extend the pipeline network from Victoria and Corpus Christi they will not be able to cheaply swap refining by products like the rest of the complex that effectively extends from Victoria to Mobile.

This is critical from most crude as a plant that makes motor fuel from most crudes has by products that plants that make products, like plastics and specialty chemicals need. Conversely, motor fuels plants can use methane and other chemicals that are by products of chemical plants or production (the oil and gas wells).

BUT. . . refining light crude up may not produce a lot of by products nor require a lot of extra inputs.

This will be interesting for the lower Gulf Coast of Texas.

Cheers
Qazulight

4 Likes
3

This is correct. in refining terms, a STABILIZER plant is really all that’s needed for light, sweet crude once the gas, gas hydrates and liquids are separated. These have become much more common as a micro plant all over the infrastructure in unconventional production fields.

There is a “refinery” in the bakken doing this. They are only a refinery because their nameplate capacity in a single location exceeds the field processing limits.

Keep it under 30,000 bpd and permitting is much simpler.

For light sweet crude and associated gas/liquids, this is a no brainer. What enters the pipeline/terminal immediately after is spec rated market products for distribution (diesel, natural gas, etc.)

1 Like