Not since 1976 has a new refinery been built in the United States. Located in the Bakken region, it will supply a rising demand for fuel that results from the burgeoning exploration industry sited around the Bakken Shale formation -- one of several domestic shale formations that are drawing hundreds of billions of dollars in new investment, to build the pipeline transport, storage, and processing capacity needed to manage the volumes of natural gas newly available from domestic sources.
The 20-month project is actually proof of the add-on effects of new oil-and-gas exploration: this new refinery will produce fuel for the many trucks, trains, and other vehicles needed to support North Dakota's expanding energy industry.
In the Bakken region, supporting that industry reportedly requires as much as 53,000 barrels of diesel fuel every day, which is far more than existing domestic diesel refining capacity can support.
To ready more see Groundbreaking Refinery Project Now Underway in Welding Design and Fabrication.