Tesoro cancels Utah crude pipeline project
HOUSTON - Tesoro Corp has canceled a crude pipeline project in Utah because of low oil prices and economic challenges, the company said on Monday.
Tesoro might reevaluate moving forward with the 135-mile (217 km) insulated pipeline “in the future under more favorable conditions,” a spokeswoman said.
Tesoro had proposed the pipeline to move black waxy crude produced in Utah’s Uinta Basin to Salt Lake City-area refineries.
The project had been under environmental review because 14 miles of the proposed pipeline would have been built on Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest land.
In February, while Tesoro was conducting an internal review of the project, the company informed the U.S. Forest Service that it had done engineering and design work. However, it was not ready to commit to build the pipeline given market conditions with prices at half the levels of the summer of 2014.
On Monday, the company said it decided not to move ahead with the Uinta pipeline “at this time.”
The pipeline had been expected to start up in 2016. Tesoro did not disclosed the projected cost.
Waxy Uinta Basin crude must be kept at higher temperatures than other types so it will flow, and output is now largely transported via truck.
Tesoro recently finished the second phase of a $275 million conversion project at its 58,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Salt Lake City that pushed capacity to 62,000 bpd and increased waxy crude processing capability to 22,000 bpd.
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