Houston, 19 July (Argus) — A rail facility BP plans to put into service in early 2014 could bring light, sweet domestic crude to its Washington state refinery and send distillates back into the US midcontinent.
The project – designed to take a unit train every other day at the 222,700 b/d refinery in Cherry Point, Washington – could move an estimated 40,000 b/d of crude or refined products. Improved rail access would allow diesel, as well as asphalt and other product, to move to new destinations, according to spokesman Scott Dean. BP plans to begin construction next year.
“It really will help improve safety of our rail operations and give us more flexibility for imports and exports,” Dean said. “It does give us more optionality, in terms of bringing in more onshore crudes.”
BP disclosed no plans to expand crude distillation capacity at the refinery, and in a spring discussion with reporters downstream chief Iain Conn laid out a plan of running a larger variety of crudes, rather than a greater volume. Today Dean stressed flexibility at the refinery, rather than working to back out or replace any specific crude grade.
Cherry Point last ran imported crudes lighter than 40°API – a rough profile for Bakken-derived oil – in 2010, based on company level import data reported to the Energy Information Administration. Imports in the first quarter of the year have trended more light and sour, with most coming barrels from Canada.
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