Here is your proof. Jack quoted as saying he owns the land.
Austin company plans to build $450 million refinery in Permian Basin Mar 9, 2017, 2:46pm CST
A Texas oilman who made a name for himself building fossil fuel infrastructure in Latin America has returned his sights back to his home state.
Now, as president, CEO and chairman of the board at Austin-based MMEX Resources Corp., Jack Hanks is spearheading plans to build a $450 million refinery in West Texas.
MMEX RESOURCES CORP
If approved, the proposed facility in Pecos County in the Permian Basin would be able to process up to 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day and convert it into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas and other products that will be shipped by rail to meet growing demand in Mexico.
Hanks said it made sense to build the United States' first refinery in 40 years in the Permian Basin because of it combines huge proven deposits with low extraction costs. Located in western Texas and New Mexico, the Permian has become the hottest shale play in the country, with $10 billion in mergers and acquisitions already announced this year. Other Austin companies such as Parsley Energy Inc. are also generating big profits from the lucrative basin.
"Even though I've spent a lot of time in Latin America, I thought for several years that we ought to come back and really look at the Permian," Hanks said. "The location in Pecos County came about really because of the confluence of massive production in the Permian as well as land availability and transportation access with the nearby railroad."
Hanks grew up in the West Texas oil town of Midland and is a long-time energy executive. He founded Maple Resources Corp. in Dallas in 1986, then in 1992 sold nearly all of the company's U.S. assets and pursued international oil and gas deals, especially in Peru.
During two decades in Central and South America, Hanks' companies built a refinery and a 172-megawatt natural gas power plant in Peru and a refinery in Brazil. He remains heavily involved in projects there.
Hanks started MMEX in September 2010. He lives in Austin, the only one of the company's six executives to do so — the rest are spread across the Western Hemisphere from Houston to Lima, Peru, according to the company's website. The company is traded on over-the-counter markets under the ticker symbol "MMEX."
Hanks expects to maintain an Austin office for the company and also set up locations in Fort Stockton and Midland.
"Austin is an interesting place. I like living here," he said. "I find the air service very good. I drive to Fort Stockton and find it's a pretty easy drive. It's an easy drive to Midland. Driving to Dallas, on the other hand, is a mess."
MMEX Resources has a contract on a 250-acre property next to the Sulfur Junction Spur of the Texas Pacifico Railroad, about 20 miles northeast of Fort Stockton. The rail line starts in San Angelo and runs to the border town of Presidio and then into Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
Hanks said MMEX must complete an environmental assessment for the property before submitting a permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and other agencies. The facility will use a closed-loop air cooling system and a closed-loop water system to minimize the impact in the desert ecosystem, he said.
MMEX is now searching for financing, both equity and debt, Hanks said.
"There are a lot of moving parts to this thing," he said. "There's not one thing that makes the difference. All of them have to move in tandem and parallel to get where we're going."
Hanks said MMEX is in negotiations with three to four oil and gas drillers to supply the refinery with crude and with two to three trading companies to move the facility's refined products.
If approved by regulators, the 18-month construction process will create up to 400 jobs while the completed refinery is expected to employ around 100 people.
"This is a 20, 30, 40-year project," Hanks said. "We own the land. This is not a concession, this is not a lease. It's a long-term project, assuming the Permian Basin supply holds up, which we all think it does."
Although there has not been a major refinery built in the United States since 1977, the MMEX Resources project is the second one proposed in Texas over the past six months.
In November, The Woodlands-based Raven Petroleum LLC announced plans to build a refinery near the South Texas town of Hebbronville where gasoline, diesel and other products would also be shipped by rail to meet growing demand in Mexico.
Will Anderson coordinates digital coverage of business news.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
