Dakota Oil Processing
4622 ND-1804, Trenton, North Dakota, United States

Dakota Oil Processing, LLC is a privately held, development stage company formed for the purpose of developing, constructing, owning and operating a crude oil topping refinery near Trenton, North Dakota.   DOP intends to construct a 20,000 barrel-per-day crude oil diesel hydro-skimming refinery near Trenton, North Dakota. The Project will receive and process light sweet crude and sell No. 1 and No. 2 ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) refined as the primary products for the local and regional markets. The secondary products produced will be naphtha, residual fuel oil and elemental sulfur, which will be sold as commodities into various markets. Propane will be refined and separated and either sold or used as plant gas.   Due to the close proximity to raw supply and the consuming market, the unique placement of the Project has strategic advantages that will greatly increase the likelihood of a profitable venture. 

Products

The facility is being designed to process and refine light sweet crude into No. 1 and No. 2 Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) and secondary products for the local and regional markets. The secondary products produced will be naphtha and residual fuel oil. The refinery will have the capability to produce blended drilling distillates as well, which will be used in oil field applications. 

Feedstock Characteristics (Refinery Input)

Not only is the oil contained within the Bakken plentiful, but it is a very high-quality crude oil, very similar to West Texas intermediate (WTI) crude. Oil from the Bakken has an API gravity of 39-40.9 degrees, compared to an API of 39.6 degrees for WTI. Bakken oil also contains significantly less sulfur as a percentage of weight than WTI as well as less asphalt and more mid-range distillates (kerosene and diesel). 

Naphtha

Naphtha is a volatile, colorless byproduct of petroleum distillation. Naphtha is also known as white gas, and when processed in catalytic reforming, it becomes high-octane motor gasoline. Since the process of making gasoline (catalytic reforming) is capital intensive and not justified given the current demand in the region, the naphtha produced will be sold in the Canadian market as diluent for tar sands oil transportation or to other refineries as reformer feedstock. 

Kerosene

Kerosene is thin, light-colored oil typically used as fuel for heating and cooking, in lamps, and in jet engines. Given current commodity prices and cost of post-processing for jet fuel, the kerosene product stream will be refined to #1 diesel fuel or blended with the diesel fuels to maximize the refinery’s diesel output. 

Industrial Diesel

Atmospheric gas oil (AGO) is the equivalent of industrial fuel oil grade #4 Diesel. Until the market can be proven for this material’s suitability as a drilling distillate, it is expected to be sold as catalytic cracking feedstock to Midwest or Gulf Coast refineries. There is very limited market potential for this product directly, however its qualities have been evaluated as highly suitable as a premium feedstock for catalytic cracking or coking, or, when blended with other petroleum components, for use as drilling distillate in the well fields.

Heavy Fuel Oil

The residual distillation product, or atmospheric tower bottoms (ATB’s), is also known as Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) or Residual Fuel Oil (RFO), and is classified as #6 Diesel. In the marine industry it is also known as Bunker C Fuel Oil, after the US Navy designation. Heavy Fuel Oil is used as fuel for very large diesel engines. Bakken crude’s distilled ATB’s are relatively light compared to many other crude feedstocks, in the range of API 20 gravity. They are also relatively free of asphaltenes and heavy metals and relatively low in sulfur (3,960 ppm), making them a premium ATB product. The atmospheric tower bottoms could be sold into the bunker fuel market, or most likely as feedstock for coker units or fluid catalytic converter (FCC) units, which take this heavy product and produce diesel, coke (in the case of the coker unit) and other distillation products.