BP plans $3bn project

BP announced today that it has entered the final planning stage of a $3bn investment in Canadian heavy crude oil processing at its Whiting Refinery, northwest Indiana.

BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone said the company intends to reconfigure its Whiting Refinery so most of its feedstock can be heavy Canadian crude oil. Reconfiguring the refinery also has the potential to increase its production of motor fuels by about 15 percent, which is about 1.7 million additional gallons of gasoline and diesel per day.

‘BP is pleased to invest in a project important to the economies of both the United States and Canada,’ Malone said. ‘BP's investment increases the diversity and security of oil supplies that can be refined into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products in demand by consumers in the Midwestern United States. It also provides a significant market for Canada's abundant heavy crude oil resources.’

The Whiting Refinery currently produces about 4.5bn gallons of transportation fuels each year, which BPO claims is enough to supply more than five million vehicles.

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in 2007 and be completed by 2011, pending regulatory approvals.