Rusk County Oil Refinery Plans Stall but Still Alive

RUSK COUNTY — Plans for a refinery to be built in western Rusk County have been jettisoned by the group that’s been working on the project for more than a year. However, a different group is working to obtain financing for a refinery to be built in the same area near New London, a spokesman said. That’s according to KETK and the Longview News-Journal. Ken Williams, owner of Gregg County Refinery and principal agent for the group that was pushing the original development plan, confirmed Thursday the effort had ended. The plan called for utilizing the long-idled Longview Refinery on Premiere Road as a terminal and portions of the refinery equipment being dismantled and used at the new site.

The 30,000-barrel-a-day facility was to be financed mainly with $182 million in low-interest Hurricane Ike bonds channeled through the Angelina-Neches River Authority. The total project was estimated to cost more than $300 million. But the effort stalled in late 2012 after the group failed to meet deadlines to receive the tax-exempt bonds. Since then, a new ownership group has been formed, said consultant Duane Gordy, a spokesman for the group that has taken the working name of Rusk County Refinery. Tulsa oilman Coleman Ferguson is the principal agent, he said.

“When we didn’t get the Hurricane Ike bonds, it changed the funding mechanism,” said Gordy, who also was involved in the original effort. “We still want to work with the Angelina-Neches River Authority, and we are still looking at the same location.”