11-02-2019

Meridian establishes site control for Permian Basin refinery

Meridian Energy Group, Inc., the emerging growth refining firm and leading innovator in advanced technology and environmentally-beneficial petroleum processing facilities, announced today that the Company has entered into agreement with a Winkler Company subsidiary, establishing site control in Winkler County, Texas for a new Meridian full-conversion crude oil refinery. This new Meridian refinery will process local Permian (Delaware Basin) crude oil into a full slate of refined products for local and regional markets. Now that site control has been established, Meridian will proceed with design and permitting of this new crude oil refining facility. Meridian Energy’s first refinery, being constructed in Billings County, North Dakota, is proving that advanced technology can be used to meet strict environmental controls to build and operate full-conversion petroleum processing facilities.

The Meridian facility in the Permian Basin will have a throughput capacity of approximately 60,000 bpd and will otherwise be modeled on the Company’s Billings County Davis Refinery, which is currently in construction. The Davis Refinery is a full-conversion greenfield refinery that was permitted for air quality purposes as a Synthetic Minor Source, demonstrating substantially lower emissions on a per barrel basis than the industry average. The Permian facility will also be permitted as a Synthetic Minor Source. The Davis Refinery is the first full-conversion crude refinery ever to be permitted as a Synthetic Minor Source, and Meridian believes that Davis, and now Permian, will be the cleanest refineries on the planet when they are operational.

Meridian Energy Group, Inc. Chairman & CEO William Prentice, stated that “Meridian’s success on the Davis Refinery demonstrates that the domestic refining industry is ready for fundamental change, and Meridian believes that the crude supply and strong demand from the refined products markets indicate that the Permian Basin is the next place for Meridian to locate a Davis-style crude refinery. In fact, Meridian’s analysis indicates that there may be a need for more than one such facility in order to fully serve the needs of the Permian Basin.”

Winkler Companies manager, David Lynch commented, “Winkler is pleased to build on its history of business development in the Permian Basin through this long-term relationship with Meridian. The Delaware Basin is expanding rapidly and there is a significant need for regional refining capacity as well as additional crude oil storage and blending in the area. Winkler is a believer in the Meridian approach to crude refining, with processing facilities that are sited to serve local crude producers and refined product markets with the most advanced and environmentally benign process and design.” Further, Lynch stated “With IMO 2020 bearing down on the US refining industry Meridian could not be better positioned to take advantage of the building demand for ULSD that can be transported from this location by truck, rail or pipe and our sister company, Indeca Crude Express, a regional crude hauler stands ready to facilitate the gathering of trucked barrels as well the distribution of product to a ready market.”

Winkler County Judge, Mr. Charles Wolf had this to say, “It has been many years since a new refinery has been built in the US and we are pleased to welcome Meridian to Winkler County along with the permanent, high quality, high tech jobs that will come with this exciting project.”