use of the coming summer construction season.” Meridian anticipates ground breaking for its Davis Refinery to occur shortly after it receives the permit to construct from the North Dakota Department of Health - Air Quality Division. In the interim, the company is proceeding with the purchase and fabrication of long-lead items of equipment and vessels, and expects to be in full commercial operation of Davis Light in early 2018. Offtake MoU’s Inked Meridian is finalizing negotiations on an array of agreements supporting the operation of the Davis Refinery, including product distribution and offtake, crude supply, and crude-product logistics agreements. Further announcements will be made in the coming weeks as these negotiations are completed. In early February, Meridian inked a Memoranda of Understanding with several local and regional petroleum product distribution firms, under which these firms will purchase and distribute up to 268-million gallons per year of refined products from the Davis Refinery. This is an important milestone for Meridian, since it represents over 67 percent of the design refined capacity of Davis Light, the first phase of the refinery, and a still-significant portion of the completed 55,000 barrels per day capacity of Davis Refinery. Upon completion, the Davis Refinery will produce over 800 million gallons of refined products per year. Negotiations of distribution agreements with other firms are proceeding. In addition, Meridian announced that it has completed a letter of intent with Sequent Energy Management L.P.
(Sequent), under which Sequent will provide the Davis Refinery with its natural gas requirements. Eye on the environment Meridian is working to minimize the impact of the Davis Refinery on the environment with the implementation of the BACT to reach near-zero emission levels. These controls are designed not only to prevent, but to detect and report any fugitive emission. The company also intends to minimize the visual impact on the landscape with plans to work with agricultural departments at local universities to implement natural tree and plant borders surrounding the refinery. When Meridian filed for its zoning and conditional-use permit with the Billings County Board of Commissioners, the permit application regarding the environmental impact was prepared by several independent biologists in accordance with the 1987 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual. They concluded (1) The proposed project is not expected to have direct impacts on endangered or threatened species. (2) The proposed project site is not listed as prime farmland. (3) The cultural resources review did not reveal any significant previously recorded cultural resources within the proposed construction boundaries of the refinery. The US Fish and Wildlife Services and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department were both consulted for purposes of this permit and both concluded that it is unlikely this project will have any long-term impacts on the threatened or endangered species of North Dakota. As a result, Meridian was granted unanimous approval of its zoning and conditional use permit in July of 2016. w
Meridian’s new video, The Standard in Clean Technology can be found at http://www.meridianenergygroupinc.com/video/. BAKKEN OIL REPORT – SPRING 2017
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