Blue Dolphin Energy Company (BDCO)

[Enterprising Investor]

Blue Dolphin secures funding to expand Eagle Ford refinery (1/05/16)

By Sergio Chapa

Independent refining company Blue Dolphin has secured another $10 million to expand its jet fuel-producing facility just one hour east of San Antonio.

The Houston-based company reported that its wholly owned subsidiary Lazarus Refining & Marketing, LLC secured the $10 million term loan from Sovereign Bank.

Blue Dolphin (OTCQX: BDCO) reported that the funds will be used to expand their refinery in Nixon by adding petroleum storage tanks with a capacity of 300,000 barrels. Company officials added that another $3 million will go towards refinancing a previous bridge loan with Sovereign Bank.

The term loan matures in December 2034 and accrues interest at a rate based on the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate plus 2.75 percent.

Company officials reported that the new funding follows the construction of petroleum storage tanks that will provide another 500,000 barrels of capacity at the refinery.

Once all the construction projects are complete, the Nixon facility will have a total petroleum storage capacity of 1 million barrels.

Blue Dolphin uses the Nixon refinery to process crude oil and condensate extracted from nearby fields in the Eagle Ford Shale to make jet fuel as well as naphtha and atmospheric gas oil, which are sold to other refineries for further processing.

The Nixon expansion project will allow Blue Dolphin to accept a wider variety of feedstocks and to rent their storage tanks to third parties. But more importantly, the company wil expand their output from 15,000 barrels per day to 30,000 barrels per day.

With seven year low crude oil prices, refining companies across the United States are reporting record profits. Blue Dolphin CEO Jonathan Carroll reported that the company has secured $35 million in 19 year financing over the past six months.

"The Nixon Facility has been running well, with peak refinery throughput hitting in excess of 14,000 barrels per day," Carroll said in a statement. "By bringing the naphtha stabilizer and depropanizer units back online and with further debottlenecking efforts, combined with the addition of more than 800,000 barrels of newly built storage tanks, we anticipate continued success with further expansion of the Nixon Facility."

Sergio Chapa covers the energy industry for the newspaper.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2016/01/05/blue-dolphin-secures-funding-to-expand-eagle-ford.html