Less oil from Canada and more from Saudi Arabia

The following comes from the Valley Times (Bay Area News Group), reported by Bloomberg News, by Joe Carroll, July 30, 2009.


Chevron to tap more Arabian oil

Stymied Richmond expansion means Canadian crude out of picture

Chevron Corp. plans to import crude from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf States rather than Canand's tar sand s to supply its Richmond refinery.

More crude will be needed as Alaskan output dwindles, and Persian Gulf grades are similar in weight to the plant's current oil supply, said Micahel Coyle, general manager of Chevron's Richmond refinery. Earlier this month, San Ramon-based Chevron was ordered by a judge to halt replacement o fequipment that dates as far back as the 1920's after environmental groups alleged the project was aimed at refining heavy Canadian oi.

The equipment upgrade won't eneable the 243,000 barrel-a-day refinery to process the thick, heavy crude mined from the bogs and river valleys of northeast Alberta, Coyle said Wednesday in telephone iterview. It will allow Chevron to handle higherosulfer oils such as those from the Middle. EAst.

Supplied of ower-sulfer Alaskan crude are declining so we are preparin gfor the relatively higher-sulfer crudes we'll need to run in the future," said Coyle, who has also helped oversee Chevron refineries in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and the U.K.

The court order means the refinery cotinues to operate with steam boilers built in the 1920's and a hydrogen plant installed in the 1960's. Hydrogen is used to remove sulfur during th erefining process.

Chevron has dismissed more than 1,000 construction workers and other contractors since Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga ruled the environmental permit covering the project was inadequate. Chevron has appealed Zuniga's ruling.