Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP confirmed recent news reports that permitting is continuing for its proposed crude oil loading dock on Lake Superior, near its Superior, Wis., refinery. The permitting, however, is being advanced independently by the owners of the dock property.
“The property is not our property,” Superior Calumet Refinery manager Kollin Schade told Petroleum News Bakken on Dec. 30. “The permits are on a third-party property through the individuals who own the property.”
Schade said Calumet was monitoring the progress of the permits as it keeps its options open for a number of proposals for the transport of Bakken crude oil.
“A number of options are being examined by the organization, but nothing is firmed up yet,” he said.
Second time around
The proposed Lake Superior terminal would load ships with heavy Canadian and light Bakken crude oil for shipment through connecting waterways. The terminal is one of two proposals recently announced for waterborne transport of Midcontinent crude oil (see story on this page).
Calumet launched a feasibility study of the terminal in January, but it put the plan on ice in October because it couldn’t find a refinery on the East Coast as a partner to help shoulder the size and cost of the project.
“We’ve had interest from various partners, but we’ve not had anybody who would step forward and do a long-term commitment to make the project feasible from our side,” Schade told Wisconsin Public Radio in October.
The long permitting process
Dock property owner Elkhorn Industries Inc. of Superior, Wis., said that because of the long lead time for permits, moving the permit process along is good strategy.
“We’re working with the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and doing what we need to do in case something moves forward,” Erik Monge, Elkhorn manager, told Petroleum News Bakken. “DNR permits take some time, so we’re starting early — following the right protocols and the right procedures.”
Monge said it is necessary to apply three years in advance just to get on the list for available funds from the state’s harbor assistance fund.
“The dock wall needs repair and some help would be wonderful,” he said.
Monge said Elkhorn was enthusiastic when it was contacted by Calumet about a crude loading project, but the company is exploring several different options for the dock.
“The permitting must be started years in advance, but it has no bearing on whether the project gets done or not,” he said.
Environmental concerns
As reports of the proposed oil shipping terminal resurfaced in the news, so too did comments from environmental groups urging caution on Great Lakes crude oil shipments, particularly shipments of heavy oil from Canadian tar sands.
A Nov. 20 report commissioned by the Alliance for the Great Lakes said that the Great Lakes shipping fleet and its ports were not designed to ship tar sands crude, and that serious gaps exist in the region’s oil-spill prevention and response policies.
Tar sands oil poses a particular cleanup challenge because it sinks to the bottom of the waterway and is difficult to recover, the report said.
“The problems are clear: tar sands crude is a significant environmental threat on multiple fronts; shipping it over water carries an inherent risk of spills; and proposals to ship tar sands crude across the Great Lakes are about to become more prevalent,” the report said. “Knowing this, the region must preface its decision about whether to ship tar sands crude by vessel with proactively improving oil-spill prevention and response policies.”
“We’re at a crossroads now, with companies starting to seek permits for new oil terminals,” said Lyman Welch, director of the Alliance’s water quality program and the report’s lead author. “Before our region starts sinking money into shipping terminals for the Great Lakes, our task should be to ask if rather than when.”
