BISMARCK — Meridian Energy Group CEO Bill Prentice said his company wants to make southwest North Dakota home to an oil refinery that could change the industry, and he’s ready to win over the people trying to prevent them from doing that.
Meridian has proposed building the Davis Refinery in Billings County just west of Belfield and three miles from the outskirts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit.
The $900 million refinery would initially convert 27,500 barrels of Bakken crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and various refined products, and could expand to handle 55,000 barrels a day. However, Meridian’s plan expectedly has been met with pushback from park officials and environmental advocates across the state who believe the refinery would impact the park’s pristine air quality.
Prentice, speaking Tuesday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, emphasized his company’s commitment to the environment and said in an interview that the industry eventually has to change mindsets of what it means for an oil refinery to move into an area.
“I think it’s going to define how the hydrocarbon processing industry looks at being a neighbor of everybody,” Prentice said of the Davis Refinery. “There’s no longer going to be this solution that you kick us out into some industrial ghetto. This industry has to know how to build a plant that can be right there (near the park), and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Dustin Monke 