North Dakota Fuel Ethanol Plant Gets New Owner, Could be Back Online This Week

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Another oil company seems to be warming up to the fuel ethanol idea as worldwide oil producer Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) (El Dorado, Arkansas) has acquired the assets of the idled VeraSun Energy ethanol plant located in Hankinson, North Dakota. The company will have a domestic production capacity of 110 million gallons per year of ethanol to accompany 158,250 barrels per day of crude oil production from refiners located in Meraux, Louisiana, and Superior, Wisconsin.

The plant has been sitting idle since October 2008, after operating for just three months. Murphy is planning to invest about $15 million in capital in the plant, and grinding of corn will resume soon at the plant in Hankinson, about 55 miles south of Fargo in Richland County.

The plant was built by the design-build team of ICM Incorporated (Colwich, Kansas) and Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota). Costs to build the plant were in excess of $200 million--and Murphy got a steal of a deal, paying just $92 million for the plant.

The new owners said they also intend to keep the 49 employees that worked at the plant prior to its closing.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 177 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 145 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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