Arizona Clean Fuels Plans Construction of First New U.S. Petroleum Refinery in 27 Years

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Houston, Texas). Arizona Clean Fuels LLC (Phoenix, Arizona) is working with environmental consultant, URS Corporation (Phoenix, Arizona) to obtain final air permits to proceed with construction of a new fuels refinery (PEC# 43000024) in Arizona. The plant will be built on a 400-acre site, 20 miles southwest of the Ahwatukee Foothills in Mobile, Arizona. Once constructed, the refinery will process 110,000 barrels per day of crude oil and will employ about 400 people.

The last fuels refinery to be constructed in the U.S. was Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC's refinery located in Garyville, Louisiana (Plant 1018073) in 1976. Since that time, no other fuels refinery has been built in the United States, with the exception of topping units, which have been constructed more recently.

Several companies have completed design and feasibility studies on the project, such as: Bechtel (Houston, Texas), Baker & O'Brien Incorporated (Houston, Texas), Purvin & Gertz Incorporated (Houston, Texas), UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois), and Greystone Environmental (Tempe, Arizona). Arizona Clean Fuels hopes to begin construction late in 2004 and complete the project by late 2008.

Arizona Clean Fuels plant will be considered the most advanced fuel refinery in North America. The company will supply about one-half of fuel demand for Arizona. The plant will produce gasoline with sulfur content of 10 parts per million, diesel fuel sulfur level below 15 parts per million, and jet fuels for use in the state. The refinery crude supply is tentatively planned to come from a large oil reserve from Mexico.

Industrialinfo.com first reported this project in October 1992, under the ownership of Maricopa Refining Company. The community opposed the project in 1995. In 1999, the company changed their name to Arizona Clean Fuels LLC. The project has been battling community opposition, difficulty in obtaining permits, and market conditions causing the project to be delayed.