Drilling in the Eagle Ford shale isn’t just transforming the South Texas oil patch. The boom also is bringing change to the refinery that’s closest to the drilling: Valero’s Energy Corp.’s Three Rivers plant.
The Valero refinery began taking in Eagle Ford crude just late last year. Now the 100,000-barrel-a-day plant is processing about 35,000 barrels of Eagle Ford crude oil daily, a total that’s expected to rise to about 50,000 barrels a day by year’s end.
The boost in Eagle Ford drilling and changes at the Valero plant have prompted local officials to adopt and copyright a new slogan for the city: “Three Rivers — Heart of the Eagle Ford Shale.”
“We have a location advantage,” said Harry Wright Jr., vice president and general manager of Valero Three Rivers Refinery.
Using more locally produced crude oil will enable the Valero refinery to reduce costs and boost profit margins. The less expensive Eagle Ford crude will, as its use increases, replace more expensive foreign oil that arrives at Gulf Coast ports such as Corpus Christi and is then sent by pipeline to the refinery.
Source: Fuel Fix
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