Valdez, Alaska (Fairbanks: to move, warehouse, Walmart)

[1stimestar]

Lol sorry Nan, just can't be sure with all our lovely and clever smart alacks here.

[gobrien]

I've heard that term used for where people stay at the Pogo gold mines, too.

[starlite9]

Why can't he just go and buy a couple of pairs at the store, they aren't that much more there.

Valdez is a town, not a place in the Wilderness, they have stores and all sorts of other neat stuff there.

If he is working at the Refinery (when did they build that?), he should be making pretty good money and a pair of socks won't be even an issue.

The last oil refinery that I knew of was built in North Pole about thirty years+- ago, the only thing of that sort in Valdez is the Pipeline Terminal and they ship out the Alaskan Oil to "Refinerys" elsewhere...

You sure you aren't being wrangled into believing a story about a place he hasn't' been to?

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by starlite9

The last oil refinery that I knew of was built in North Pole about thirty years+- ago,

The last totally new refinery built in the US was the Petro Star refinery in... Valdez Alaska. It came on line about 1993. Petro Star did a lot of bragging about how it took the shortest time ever from the build decision to being operational.

Of course a lot of people like to make claims that government regulations won't allow the building of new refineries. But that is clearly untrue. Not only did the last one to be built go through the process at break neck speed, the fact is that the industry has been steadily closing refineries across the country. They accomplish that by uprading one or two to significantly higher capacity, and then close another one. Refining capacity has been steadily increasing while the number of operating refineries has been steadily in decline and it has nothing at all to do with Federal regulation.

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by starlite9

Why can't he just go and buy a couple of pairs at the store, they aren't that much more there.

Valdez is a town, not a place in the Wilderness, they have stores and all sorts of other neat stuff there.

There really aren't many retail stores in Valdez. I'm new here, but I've been here all summer and don't know where I'd go to buy regular cotton socks in town. You probably can, but it's not totally obvious, especially to a newcomer, where they'd be sold.

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by tigre79

There really aren't many retail stores in Valdez. I'm new here, but I've been here all summer and don't know where I'd go to buy regular cotton socks in town. You probably can, but it's not totally obvious, especially to a newcomer, where they'd be sold.

The Prospector.

Locations | The Prospector - Alaska's Finest Outfitters

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

The last totally new refinery built in the US was the Petro Star refinery in... Valdez Alaska. It came on line about 1993. Petro Star did a lot of bragging about how it took the shortest time ever from the build decision to being operational.

And, the Petro Star refinery in Valdez, along with Flint Hills and the other P/S in Fairbanks, are probably the "luckiest" refineries in the world. They get their supply by simply tapping off of the 48" TAPS Mainline, taking only what they actually need (usually Naptha and the other lighter crude components to make Diesel and Jet Fuel), then pumping their residuum back into the mainline. Most other refineries need to pay to have their residual waste hauled away and treated (which is why most refineries are full spectrum refiners, utilising as much of the crude stack as possible for efficiency - Petro Star and Flint Hills are more like giant topping units than true refineries). The API number of the residuum stream from these refineries are continuously monitored so they only pay the TAPS owners for the crude compenents that they actually use.

What a deal! In theory, one would think that these should be some of the cheapest, cleanest, and most economical refineries in the world to operate.

[Nephler]

I just checked out their site and it looks to me that the cost of things are darn good.

[Moose Whisperer]

Pretty similar to Army-Navy/Big Ray's

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Moose Whisperer

And, the Petro Star refinery in Valdez, along with Flint Hills and the other P/S in Fairbanks, are probably the "luckiest" refineries in the world. They get their supply by simply tapping off of the 48" TAPS Mainline, taking only what they actually need (usually Naptha and the other lighter crude components to make Diesel and Jet Fuel), then pumping their residuum back into the mainline. Most other refineries need to pay to have their residual waste hauled away and treated (which is why most refineries are full spectrum refiners, utilising as much of the crude stack as possible for efficiency - Petro Star and Flint Hills are more like giant topping units than true refineries). The API number of the residuum stream from these refineries are continuously monitored so they only pay the TAPS owners for the crude compenents that they actually use.

What a deal! In theory, one would think that these should be some of the cheapest, cleanest, and most economical refineries in the world to operate.

They both have to pay to dump their waste products back into the TAPS, and the result is that TAPS can charge slightly less for their product.

Most refineries necessarily have to be built in locations where there is a market for the waste products. That would be a chemical/plastics industry. I don't know if a refinery pays them, or sells it to them.

Of course that particular fact is not one that would make a refinery the "cheapest, cleanest, and most economical" in the world to operate. The refinery in North Pole, for whatever reason, has been an economic burden to each and every owner. The refinery in Valdez is very small and has a limited market (they fuel supertankers and the Valdez Terminal).