Thursday, April 16, 2015

Oil refinery could be in the works at Port of Longview

Oil refinery could be in the works at Port of Longview


Portland-based environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper announced Wednesday that an oil refinery could be coming to the Port of Longview.

Port officials said there’s no deal or even negotiations for a refinery at this time. But the Texas firm pursuing a refinery in the region said Longview “is one of our leading candidates and the one we’re currently most interested in pursuing.”

Riverkeeper officials said public records revealed that Houston-based Riverside Refining wants to partner with the port to build a crude oil refinery. The refinery would be supplied with oil coming by rail from the Bakken fields in Wyoming and Montana and would be the first West Coast refinery built in 25 years. Riverkeeper, a staunch opponent of oil shipments to the Northwest, posted a link to the documents to its website Wednesday.

Port spokeswoman Ashley Helenberg said Riverside did approach the port about building a refinery more than a year ago.....

...Riverside Refining’s slideshow presentation to port officials in early 2014 included plans to build a 30,000-barrel a day refinery with a rail loop for oil trains to move through the port site. The company said the refinery would create about 150 jobs. The slideshow contained plans for refining the oil into diesel, gas and jet fuel, which would be shipped in supertankers along the Columbia River.

Having that much oil, about 40 rail tanker cars a day, coming into Longview and then shipped out on the river has environmentalists worried. The safety of crude oil shipments coming from the Bakken fields has been under fire recently due to several derailments in the U.S. and Canada in the last two years.

“Our community is not a sacrifice zone for oil industry profits,” Longview resident Diane Dick wrote in a Riverkeeper statement. “Oil trains and tankers will put our community and the Columbia River in danger.”

Riverside CEO Louis Soumas said the company has been waiting to see the outcome of Haven Energy’s proposed liquid propane and butane terminal before it would decide how to proceed. Port commissioners rejected the Haven proposal last month.....    more here

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