Permian Refinery
Meridian will be leveraging its intellectual property and commercial relationships from the Davis Refinery to create a new refinery located in the Permian Basin in West Texas. Several years ago, Meridian entered into an option agreement establishing site control on a 1,280-acre parcel of land just north of the community of Kermit in Winkler County, Texas, in the heart of the Permian Basin, where Meridian intended to build and operate a second full-conversion crude oil refinery (the “Permian Refinery”).
Based on a comprehensive review of various siting issues, Meridian allowed its option on this site to expire and is evaluating potentially more viable alternative sites in the area. Meridian is also undertaking scoping studies and pre-permitting engineering for the Permian facility in preparation for initiating permitting once the agreements for the new site are finalized.
The Permian Refinery would have a throughput capacity of approximately 65,000 bpd and is expected to be permitted as a Synthetic Minor Source, the same air quality permitting classification as Davis. The Company anticipates that most of the key project strategies and commercial arrangements for Davis, such as for engineering and construction, crude supply and offtake will be replicated, although the design of the Permian facility may provide for greater flexibility in the production of jet fuel vs diesel fuel depending on market conditions.
Cushing Refinery
Meridian is also engaged in siting discussions and pre-permitting studies and designs for a third facility to be located just south of Cushing, Oklahoma, where a number of pipelines converge, creating a collection point for both Permian and Bakken crude oil. The design of the Cushing Refinery is expected to be virtually identical to that of the Permian facility, although the product mix may be different due to market conditions.
Additional Refinery Projects
Additional refinery projects employing the Meridian intellectual property and technical, permitting and commercial strategies will be evaluated for other shale oil basins, with anticipated capacities of up to 65,000 bpd each. The Company’s objective is to develop and bring into commercial operation from five to ten such refineries with total capacity of approximately 500,000 bpd.
Belfield Energy Center
The Belfield Energy Center planned near Davis site. This natural gas fueled “powered shell” datacenter energy project having capacity of up to 1,200mW. Initial capacity to be in operation in late 2027 or early 2028 serving a colocation operator already under LOI, with a total of 480mW in operation by 2032 to 2035. The manner in which Meridian will approach these types of projects will apply advanced power generation and control technology and virtually eliminate the permitting difficulties plaguing the industry associated with impact on local power rates, air and noise pollution and water usage. Datacenter power projects are subject to the same basic developmental and permitting issues as refineries, so the Company plans to apply the same concept at its other refinery sites.