YUMA — The developer of a proposed gasoline refinery in eastern Yuma County is continuing its push to build the first such project in the United States in about 30 years.
The project's developer, Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma, has received cooperation from the Mexican secretary of energy on its plan to build a pipeline that would run through Baja California to the refinery. The company also received an Environmental Protection Agency permit to build a refinery.
But the company is still looking for investors. It also is seeking a long-term crude oil supplier after the Mexican state-run oil company said it would be unable to enter into a long-term supply deal because of its declining reserves, said Glenn McGinnis, chief executive of Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma.
The refinery would be Arizona's first. Most gasoline now used in Arizona is carried by pipelines from California and Texas. The company picked the Yuma County site after abandoning plans to get approval for a site in Maricopa County.
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Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma is looking at other potential crude suppliers for the proposed 150,000-barrel-per-day refinery 40 miles east of Yuma. Canada, Brazil and Ecuador are top alternatives, McGinnis said.
Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma has raised $32 million of investment capital for the $3.2 billion project. McGinnis said that within coming months the company will know whether two groups that are considering making the investment have come up with the money. He declined to identify the possible investors.
The proposed refinery would be fed by crude coming through a pipeline that would stretch from east Yuma County down to the Mexican border and then through Baja California to a seaport south of Ensenada.
A route has yet to be found for running the pipeline, which would cost an estimated $500 million, from the border to the refinery. The most direct route would run underground from Mexico through the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range.
The Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, which uses the range for bombing practice using inert bombs, hasn't taken a position on the company's plans, but the military has raised concerns about commercial and residential development encroaching on bases throughout Arizona.
McGinnis said the company plans for the refinery to be operating by 2010.
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