HEBBRONVILLE, Texas Raven Petroleum spoke directly to the public for the primary time Thursday, eight months after saying plans to build a crude oil refinery on Webb County’s border, four miles downwind from Bruni.
Christopher Moore, managing director of Raven Petroleum, spoke to the audience of the Governor’s Small Business Workshop in Hebbronville after the occasion ended around 2 p.m. (He also served as a panelist at the earlier event, but didn’t handle any questions in regards to the refinery.)
Up to now couple of months, Raven Petroleum has updated their website to include some preliminary info about the South Texas Vitality Complex, commonly referred to as the Raven refinery:
It’s going to course of fifty five,000 barrels of crude oil per day on an 832-acre tract of line in Duval County, at the corners of Webb and Jim Hogg counties. The Kansas Metropolis Southern rail line cuts by means of the property, giving them direct access to distribution, and two pipelines bisect the property. Raven plans to provide gasoline, diesel fuel, naphtha (a flammable oil), and liquified petroleum gasoline products.
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They foresee that the mission will create 1,500-1,800 jobs throughout the development part and provide 300-400 permanent jobs. They goal to export their products via Laredo and into Mexico.
At Thursday’s presentation, Moore mentioned Raven wants to work in partnership with the native communities, and that he has not requested for any subsidies or cash to maneuver the project ahead.
“We got here into this entire course of introducing ourselves at the state stage, the local degree, not with our elbows out. …We got here in right here with our palms out for partnership,” Moore said.
Webb County Decide Tano Tijerina had been meeting with Moore for a few year before Raven officially announced the refinery. Although he initially voiced help, Tijerina revoked it in February, claiming he had not acquired any specific info about the undertaking and was uncomfortable publicly supporting it.
In November, when Moore first introduced Raven’s plans, he mentioned they were on schedule to interrupt ground in 2017 with a possibility to be in service by 2018.
Nevertheless, Raven has not submitted an air permit application with the Texas Fee on Environmental Quality. Raven can not commence development until this software is authorised, which will likely take a yr.
Moore stated Thursday that they are not speeding to submit this software. They need to do all the pieces proper in order to guard their long-time period viability, he mentioned.
“Some individuals say, ‘When are you going to get began?’ Effectively, consider me, there is no yet one more able to get this started than we’re,” Moore mentioned.
All they’ve left to do before submitting the TCEQ application is negotiate the contracts with their crude oil suppliers, Moore stated. They are within the technique of analyzing six sources for crude, and need to create the most effective and price-effective blend of these crudes, Moore stated.
Moore said this could take two weeks or two months it’s not a process he can rush.
“Right now that’s up within the air based on how quickly we can negotiate that remaining piece and run our simulations. It is not the answer you need, and it is not the reply I would like. It is what it is though,” he stated.
Round February, a group of individuals involved concerning the refinery’s environmental and health impact joined to form South Texans Towards the Refinery, or STAR.
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The group, led by Tricia Cortez, Rio Grande Worldwide Study Heart executive director, has held several conferences in Bruni, one of the closest communities to the proposed refinery.
Cortez asked Moore on Thursday if he would elaborate on the amount of toxic emissions that the refinery will emit, and if he had thought about Bruni’s proximity to the location of these potential hazards.
“The health and security of the Bruni neighborhood has been taken into consideration, and we take that very severely,” Moore said in response. “Now we have looked on the wind patterns, all of that, and that can all be analyzed together with our air permit submission.”
But he mentioned he won’t know the refinery’s emission values until the TCEQ application is submitted.
Raven is prepared to spend extra money to build this refinery as clean as they can, Moore said, and can implement trendy technology that was not available when the last refinery in the nation was constructed 40 years in the past.
Also, the South Texas Vitality Complicated will solely refine mild, candy crude, so they will not need to make use of the “huge, nasty elements of your typical refineries as a result of it’s just not crucial,” Moore mentioned.
Geothermal plant
Raven states on their web site that a zero carbon footprint is their purpose. Although they did not tackle the refinery’s particular emissions, they revealed Thursday that the source of the facility’s vitality can be an on-site geothermal plant.
Bruce Cutright, CEO of Thermal Power Companions, introduced on the advantages of geothermal power, which is produced through the heat beneath the earth.
Texas has more geothermal power than some other state in the nation, Cutright mentioned, with its deep, hot sedimentary resources. And a stretch beneath Duval County has the densest concentration of energy than any other space in the state, he said.
“We’re sitting on the Saudi Arabia of geothermal vitality,” Cutright mentioned.
A geothermal plant on Raven’s property would produce enough vitality for the refinery after which some, and there will be zero carbon dioxide emissions, Cutright stated.
Larry Wink of Wink Engineering, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana-primarily based agency that’s engaged on plans for the refinery, mentioned the truth that this site is on top of a geothermal hot spot is phenomenal.
“There is not a refinery I do know of that can totally power their wants with a geothermal process,” he stated.
The geothermal plant will even produce water for the refinery so it is not going to should dip into the county’s water system, Wink mentioned.
CORE Occupational Medicine, a health companies provider with over 1,500 clinics throughout the country, also made a presentation about the medical companies the encompassing areas might expect to see with the construction of the refinery.
Raven Resources Group
Raven Petroleum is a subsidiary of Raven Resources Group, which Moore founded a couple of years in the past.
Critics have famous that Moore has no background in oil and gas, which he addressed in an interview with LMT after his presentation Thursday.
“I come from the undertaking financing side originally. I spent about six to seven years in that. And then for about 27 years I ran my own investment management agency, overlapping during the last 10 years, re-engaged in oil and gasoline,” Moore said. “I’ve grown up in and around the oil and fuel business.”
He also mentioned his crew of nine senior managers has a mean of 25-35 years of experience each in oil and gasoline. Moore plans to broaden to a staff of about 45 to handle this refinery, he stated.
“I have a community of people who are a complete lot more skilled than I am supporting and running the technical facet of the venture. I am the quarterback, or coordinator of the challenge. I don’t step outside of my area of experience I am more the macro-level supervisor of the corporate,” Moore said.
When news of the plans for the refinery broke, Moore mentioned he can be self-funding the $500 million enterprise.
Raven remains with out outside buyers, Moore said, however has “funding lined up.”
“The company and myself have sources to help the stage that we’re at, and intend to get to the next milestone,” Moore said. “At that point we do have funding lined up, however it’s more environment friendly as soon as we’ve achieved sure milestones to deliver in more environment friendly funding.
