Well, seems the hot idea these days! I suppose we can’t complain too much. High gasoline prices have put “a few more cents” in the pockets of large oil companies, raising the amount of money they spend on their infrastructure.
ConocoPhillips is awating approval for a significant increase in production for their Wood River, IL refinery.
A $2 billion expansion of the ConocoPhillips’ Wood River Refinery
in the SW Illinois portion of the region, that will ensure the
facility’s commercial viability for decades—even as alternative
fuels gain in importance—is moving towards final approval in
early October.If, as expected, the investment is approved by the directors
of ConocoPhillips and its partner in the project, TransCanada
Pipelines, the refining capacity at Wood River would increase
from 306,000 barrels of crude oil daily to between 360,000 and
370,000 barrels a day. The increased capacity would come on
line in 2010.Even more significant than growth in the amount of crude that
could be processed is the fact that the Wood River facility
would be able to process more Canadian crude, called “sand oil,â€
because it is essentially oil-saturated sand. This lower quality
raw product is much more expensive to extract and difficult
to refine, but the supply is plentiful and reliable.
I bet I’ll find more expansion news in a few moments! 🙂
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