As some of you know I host a radio program called Building the Bakken and the MonDak OilField Review on a number of radio stations across the Upper Midwest. Over the past several weeks I have been airing interviews from the Dakota Prairie Refinery grand opening in late June. Listening to those interviews, it got me thinking how historic and monumental this joint venture with MDU Resources and Indiana-based Calumet Specialty Products Partners really was.
Since the Bakken became the home for the first greenfield fuels refinery built in the United States in nearly 40 years, employs 80 full-time workers and markets its diesel fuel throughout the region, I felt one more visit is appropriate.
The new refinery was built a few mile outside of Dickinson, ND, and can process 20,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil daily to produce 7,000 barrels of diesel fuel as well as other hydrocarbon products. Dickinson mayor Dennis Johnson understands the impact the Dakota Prairie Refinery has on his town, as well as the nation.
“It is the first one built in 40 years so it is a big deal,” Johnson said. “To have that built in our community is truly an honor and opportunity.”
Johnson’s role was more involved than your average mayor too.
“The city built a wastewater treatment facility, so the water that comes out of the wastewater treatment plant is very high industrial quality water and we are bringing it all the way from our treatment plant outside the city limits to the refinery,” Johnson said. “They need close to 300,000 barrels of water a day in the process. We then take their waste water back and recycle it again and treat it at our facilities.”
Johnson said this is not common, at least not common to Dickinson and the oil and gas producing counties in western North Dakota.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Johnson said. “But here in North Dakota we do what we have to do to make things happen.”
Calumet Board of Directors Chairman Fred Fehsenfeld seemed to offer a feeling of relief and contentment towards the closure of construction. Along with making sure proper credit was given to the original idea man.
“We made it. I gotta tell you it feels very very good,” Fehsenfeld said. “It was a long and winding road since Calumet and MDU first started discussing this project, which the original idea was my partner’s idea Bill Grube,” Fehsenfeld said. “We came up with the project over lunch, but Bill deserves the authorship on the idea.”
Fehsenfeld continued offering credit to those involved with constructing the greenfield refinery.
“It’s truly a remarkable achievement that wouldn’t have happened without lots of sweat and tears from hundreds of people from the local workforce, many supporting companies and the gracious support from the state of North Dakota,” Fehsenfeld said.
Fehsenfeld was able to put into perspective the massive undertaking the project entailed by thanking the construction team for their impressive project management.
“There was 146 miles of power and instrumentation cable that was pulled. There is 1,850 tons of steel installed and over a million cubic yards of soil had to be moved,” Fehsenfeld said. “This was a major undertaking.”
MDU Resources CEO David Goodin acted as the master of ceremonies, recognizing many people and companies involved. Goodin also was very appreciative to the boots on the ground workers and their overall commitment .
“MSU Resources along with Calumet Specialty Products, we a very pleased to have put this plant up,” Goodin said. “It wasn’t without help from many others. We’ve invested about 2.5 million man hour of labor into this project. And we’ve done that with zero loss time accidents.”
Goodin continued giving kudos and accolades to the workers and staff member who assisting with the historic greenfield refinery.
“We are so proud of this plant and our abilities,” Goodin said. “On a combined basis along with the engineering, all the suppliers, all the contractors, all the labor that has been put into this project.”
The Dakota Prairie Refinery was considered a solution by many in the area for uncontrollable diesel prices and supply, especially to the agriculture industry in the Upper Midwest.
“As we look at this plant behind us, we are producing diesel from this plant that is behind us that’s providing a market that is severely undersupplied in diesel to the state of North Dakota,” Goodin said.
Goodin took time to acknowledge the “business friendly” environment that North Dakota has created, citing red tape and the regulatory nature of a new refinery.
“Often times government can be a way to challenge a person as to how can you actually get that done or can that get done,” Goodin said. “I would say the environment we have here in North Dakota, particularly in western North Dakota, is how can we get a project like this done. While being a rigorous, regulatory permitting and environmental project it is certainly appreciated from the owners here that we have a very facilitative business environment in North Dakota. And that comes as no surprise rather by design, we very much have a can-do attitude.”
Leave a Reply