But...but....but

<$BlogMetaData$>May 3rd, 2011


But…but…but

What does a 400,000 barrel a day refinery say? Evidently not much, if you listened to the debate between Hyperion and the Sierra club on PBS radio the other day. Preston Phillips and Eric Williams said the same thing last Wednesday that they’ve been saying for the last 4 years NOTHING. Well, they did say that they are asking for another 18 month extension from DENR to begin construction AND that they plan to begin construction this summer – all in the same breath. I don’t know why they just don’t come out and say they don’t have a clue because they also admitted they’ve never built a refinery before. (Isn’t that comforting?). Of course they aren’t going to build it anyway, so I guess one true statement out of the hour long diatribe doesn’t hurt anything. (Ain’t ever, ain’t gonna,) you could tell from the sound of Preston’s voice that he was trying very hard to come across with a positive attitude, but I think his attitude sucks. Anyway, between Preston and Eric they weren’t very convincing. It certainly is refreshing that a couple of dunderheads are leading the pack. I wonder what the rest of the company has for an attitude. I’ve always been told that attitude is everything when it comes to being successful. No wonder Hyperion is what it is.

I ran into Jim Heisinger a couple of days later and congratulated him on pinning their ears back especially on the carbon capture statements that Hyperion has made in the past. Those statements seemed to get their hackles’ up a bit. They insisted again that they said they would be carbon capture ready. Whatever that means anymore. I did learn an interesting bit from my discussion with Jim, and that is that Hyperion's heavy sour crude contains the sluggish, tarry bitumen recovered from the tar sands deposits. It will not reliably flow through pipes without heating it so it is diluted with lighter hydrocarbons decreasing the pressure needed to pump the abrasive mess and that there is only one company in Canada that makes Dilbit or Dilsynbit, and Hyperion will have to do a contract with them to get them to up their production. Do you remember from last week what I said about dilbit? Dilbit is a light hydrocarbon liquid mixed with the bitumen, if synthetic oil is used synbit is produced. Hyperion claims it will use a 50/50 blend of the two. It currently appears as if it is only produced by one Canadian upgrader. That upgrader currently makes about 200,000 barrels/day. Hyperion has not documented that is can reliably secure 400,000/barrels/day and, of course, it still does not have a pipeline, only a pipe dream.. (One more piece of the puzzle) – One more bottleneck for Hyperion to worry about.

Will Hyperion’s supply of tar sands be a spur from Keystone XL? I personally don’t think so, since Eric Williams insisted that they will build a ‘bullet’ line from Canada to Union County. (Great choice of words there isn’t it?) Hyperion said it will take 4 ½ years to build the pipeline and 4 ½ years to build the refinery, so it should all be completed at the same time. (Right) Why do I get the feeling we are listening to a stand-up comedian when he says something like this?

One thing I do know is that Hyperion can say whatever it wants to, but the general contractor (who they haven’t named yet by the way) is the one who is going to tell Hyperion what to do. (I know what I’d like to tell Hyperion what to do.) Isn’t it funny that Hyperion can say there will be 4,500 workers and that this project will make 1800 permanent jobs and nobody has asked the general contractor if this is true? I guess I could pick some numbers out of the air and say the same thing, since Hyperion has never built a refinery before, how the hell do they know what this project is going to do? To use an oil euphemism, this is all smoke and no blow. Why doesn’t somebody call them on this, after all, this is the biggest part of the economic development program? What are the specific numbers? What are the actual number and type of jobs that will be created? I really get tired of being like Hyperion and saying the same things over and over, but we are being taken to the cleaners and I don’t like it.

I guess a 400,000 barrel a day refinery is like an 800 pound gorilla, it can say anything it wants to. But…but…but…I don’t have to believe it!