Permit issued for first phase of MMEX Resources refinery
State regulators have issued a permit for the first phase of the first new refinery built in the U.S. in more than 40 years.
After a nearly month of review, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued a permit to MMEX Resources Corp. (OTCPK: MMEX). The permit allows the company to build a crude distillation unit on the company's land just northeast of Fort Stockton.
The TCEQ permit allows the Austin-based company to build a unit that uses an atmospheric distillation process. Unlike a typical refinery that relies on cracking and hydrotreating to refine the petroleum into final products, an atmospheric distillation process uses heat and gravity to separate the petroleum products into rough cuts that require additional refining prior to being considered final products.
MMEX announced in March that it planned to build a refinery in the Permian Basin capable of converting 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and liquefied petroleum gas. Refined products would then be shipped by rail to meet growing demand in Mexico.
The company reported raising and investing more than $698,000 for project planning, development and operations since April. The company tapped Dallas-based environmental consulting firm Trinity Consultants Inc. to handle its permit application with the TCEQ.
In a strategic shift, MMEX Resources CEO Jack Hanks said in June that the project would be split into two phases to take advantage of how the TCEQ issues permits. Hanks, who could not immediately be reached for comment, previously confirmed plans to build the crude distillation unit during the first phase and a full refinery in the second.
"The process for a crude distillation unit is 45 days," Hanks said in a past interview. "The process for a full-blown refinery with sulphur-removing equipment to make transportation-spec diesel and gasoline is 15 to 18 months."
Sergio Chapa
Reporter
San Antonio Business Journal
