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Navajo Refinery
The Navajo Refinery has a crude oil capacity of 100,000 BPSD and has the ability to process sour crude oils into high value light products (such as gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel). The Navajo Refinery converts approximately 91% of its raw materials throughput into high value light products. For 2008, gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel (excluding volumes purchased for resale) represented 57%, 33% and 1%, respectively, of the Navajo Refinery's sales volumes.
The Navajo Refinery's Artesia, New Mexico facility is located on a 561 acre site and is a fully integrated refinery with crude distillation, vacuum distillation, FCC, ROSE (solvent deasphalter), HF alkylation, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization, isomerization, sulfur recovery and product blending units. Other supporting infrastructure includes approximately 2.0 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage at the site of which 0.2 million is owned by HEP, maintenance shops, warehouses and office buildings. The operating units at the Artesia facility include newly constructed units, older units that have been relocated from other facilities and upgraded and re-erected in Artesia, and units that have been operating as part of the Artesia facility (with periodic major maintenance) for many years, in some very limited cases since before 1970. The Artesia facility is operated in conjunction with an integrated refining facility located in Lovington, New Mexico, approximately 65 miles east of Artesia. The principal equipment at the Lovington facility consists of a crude distillation unit and associated vacuum distillation units that were constructed after 1970. The facility also has an additional 1.1 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage of which 0.2 million is owned by HEP. The Lovington facility processes crude oil into intermediate products that are transported to Artesia by means of two intermediate pipelines owned by HEP. These products are then upgraded into finished products at the Artesia facility. The combined crude oil capacity of the Navajo facilities is 85,000 BPSD and it typically processes or blends an additional 10,000 BPSD of natural gasoline, butane, gas oil and naphtha.
We also own 67 crude oil trucks and 67 trailers that support operations at our Navajo Refinery facilities.
We distribute refined products from the Navajo Refinery to markets in Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas primarily through two of HEP's owned pipelines that extend from Artesia, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. In addition, we use pipelines owned and leased by HEP to transport petroleum products to markets in central and northwest New Mexico. We have refined product storage through our pipelines and terminals agreement with HEP at terminals in El Paso, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; and Artesia, Moriarty and Bloomfield, New Mexico.
We manufacture and market commodity and modified asphalt products in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico under Holly Asphalt Company ("Holly Asphalt"). We have three manufacturing facilities located in Glendale, Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Artesia, New Mexico. Our Albuquerque and Artesia facilities manufacture modified hot asphalt products and commodity emulsions from base asphalt materials provided by our Navajo Refinery and third-party suppliers. Our Glendale facility manufactures modified hot asphalt products from base asphalt materials provided by our Navajo and Woods Cross Refineries and third-party suppliers. Our products are shipped via third-party trucking companies to commercial customers that provide asphalt based materials for commercial and government projects.
Crude Oil and Feedstock Supplies
The Navajo Refinery is situated near the Permian Basin in an area that historically has had abundant supplies of crude oil available both for regional users, such as us, and for export to other areas. We purchase crude oil from producers in nearby southeastern New Mexico and west Texas and from major oil companies. Crude oil is gathered both through HEP's pipelines and our tank trucks and through third-party crude oil pipeline systems. Crude oil acquired in locations distant from the refinery is exchanged for crude oil that is transportable to the refinery.
We also purchase isobutane, natural gasoline and other feedstocks to supply the Navajo Refinery. In 2008, approximately 4,900 BPD of isobutane and 5,000 BPD of natural gasoline used in the Navajo Refinery's operations were purchased from a newly operational fractionation facility in Hobbs, New Mexico, which is owned by Enterprise Products, L.P. as well as volumes purchased from the mid-continent area and delivered to our region on a common carrier pipeline owned by Enterprise Products, L.P. Ultimately all volumes of these products are shipped to the Artesia refining facilities on HEP's two parallel 65-mile pipelines running from Lovington to Artesia. From time to time, we also purchase gas oil, naphtha and light cycle oil from other oil companies for use as feedstock.
Principal Products and Customers
Our principal customers for gasoline include other refiners, convenience store chains, independent marketers, and retailers. Our gasoline produced at the Navajo Refinery is marketed in the southwestern United States, including the metropolitan areas of El Paso, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Bloomfield, and Tucson, and in portions of northern Mexico. The composition of gasoline differs, because of local regulatory requirements, depending on the area in which gasoline is to be sold. Diesel fuel is sold to other refiners, truck stop chains, wholesalers, and railroads. Jet fuel is sold for military use. All asphalt produced at the Navajo Refinery and third-party purchased asphalt is marketed through Holly Asphalt to governmental entities or contractors. LPG's are sold to LPG wholesalers and LPG retailers and carbon black oil is sold for further processing.
Military jet fuel is sold to the Defense Energy Support Center, a part of the United States Department of Defense (the "DESC"), under a series of one-year contracts that can vary significantly from year to year. We sold approximately 775 BPD of jet fuel to the DESC in 2008. We have had a military jet fuel supply contract with the United States Government for each of the last 39 years. Our size in terms of employees and refining capacity allows us to bid for military jet fuel sales contracts under a small business set-aside program. In September 2008, the DESC awarded us contracts for sales of military jet fuel for the period from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Our total contract award, which is subject to adjustment based on actual needs of the DESC for military jet fuel, is 12.7 million gallons as compared to the total award for the 2007-2008 contract year of 22.0 million gallons.
Capital Improvement Projects
We have invested significant amounts in capital expenditures in recent years to expand and enhance the Navajo Refinery and expand our supply and distribution network.
Our Board of Directors approved a capital budget for 2009 of $11.4 million for refining improvement projects at the Navajo Refinery, not including the capital projects approved in prior years or our expansion and feedstock flexibility projects described below.
At the Navajo Refinery, we are proceeding with major capital projects including expanding refinery capacity to 100,000 BPSD in phase I and then in phase II, developing the capability to run up to 40,000 BPSD of heavy type crudes. Phase I requires the installation of a new 15,000 BPSD mild hydrocracker, 28 MMSCFSD hydrogen plant, and the expansion of our Lovington crude and vacuum units. Phase I is expected to be mechanically complete in the first quarter of 2009 and was originally estimated to cost $163.0 million. The total cost of phase I is now expected to be approximately $185.0 million. The added costs are associated with permit timing delays, scope changes due to permit required pollution control equipment that was not anticipated, material cost escalation and increased labor rates.
Phase II involves the installation of a new 18,000 BPSD solvent deasphalter and the revamp of our Artesia crude and vacuum units. Phase II is expected to be mechanically complete in the fourth quarter of 2009 and was originally estimated to cost $84.0 million. The total cost of phase II is now expected to be approximately $96.0 million. The added costs are associated with better scope definition on the Artesia crude and vacuum unit revamp portion of the overall project and material cost escalation.
We are also proceeding with a project to add asphalt tankage at the Navajo Refinery and at the Holly Asphalt facility in Artesia, New Mexico to enhance asphalt economics by storing asphalt during the winter months when asphalt prices are generally lower. These asphalt tank additions and an approved upgrade of our rail loading facilities at the Artesia refinery are estimated to cost approximately $15.0 million and are expected to be completed at the same time as the phase II project.
The Navajo Refinery is also installing a new 100 ton per day sulfur recovery unit that is scheduled for mechanical completion in the first quarter of 2009. The project was originally estimated to cost $26.0 million and is now projected to cost $31.0 million. The added costs are associated permit delays, material cost escalation and increased labor rates.
Once the Navajo projects discussed above are complete, the Navajo Refinery will be able to process 100,000 BPSD of crude with up to 40% of that crude being lower cost heavy crude oil. The projects will also increase the yield of diesel, supply Holly Asphalt with all their performance grade asphalt requirements, increase refinery liquid volume yield, increase the refinery's capacity to process outside feedstocks and enable the refinery to meet new LSG specifications required by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA").
In July 2008, we announced an agreement by one of our subsidiaries to transport crude oil on Centurion's pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to its Slaughter Station located in west Texas. Our Board of Directors has approved capital expenditures of up to $97.0 million to build the necessary infrastructure including a 70-mile pipeline from Centurion's Slaughter Station to Lovington, New Mexico and a 65-mile pipeline from Lovington to Artesia, New Mexico. It also includes a 37-mile pipeline project that connects HEP's Artesia gathering system to our Lovington facility for processing. This will permit the segregation of heavy crude oil for our crude / vacuum unit in Artesia and provide Artesia area crude oil producers additional access to markets. Under the provisions of our omnibus agreement with HEP (the "Omnibus Agreement"), HEP will have an option to purchase these transportation assets upon our completion of these projects. We expect to complete these projects in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Page last updated: 3/18/09
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