A crude oil loading facility serving the Uinta Basin received government approval for a massive expansion project just over two weeks after the expansion was requested.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said on July 7 that the Wildcat Loadout Facility passed under an accelerated 14-day environmental review process, implemented after President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency issued in January.
“This project reflects our commitment to advancing critical infrastructure while ensuring careful stewardship of Utah’s public lands,” said BLM Green River District Manager Elijah Waters in a press release. The BLM oversees mineral extraction on federally managed public lands.
The Wildcat facility is used to transfer waxy Uinta Basin crude from tanker trucks to rail cars and will be reconfigured to allow for more traffic, according to the bureau. The loadout facility owner is Coal Energy Group 2. The 270-acre structure’s original purpose was to move coal, not oil.
The project includes more unloading areas, loading systems, a tank farm and other facilities to increase capacity.
The Wildcat facility can currently handle 77 truck deliveries and 20,000 bbl/d, according to BLM’s report. The expansion would up the numbers to 345 truck deliveries and 100,000 bbl/d.
The traffic would be sent southeast through Colorado on trains with 104 rail cars, the longest allowed on the line, according to a report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
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(Source: Rextag)
Environmental groups and Colorado politicians criticized the approval.
“There is no credible energy emergency to justify bypassing public involvement and environmental safeguards,” Colorado U.S. Rep. Michael Bennet and Sen. Joe Neguse, both Democrats, said in a joint release. “The United States is currently producing more oil and gas than any country in the world.”
The Center for Biological Diversity called the national energy emergency “bogus.”
“This thinly analyzed decision threatens the lifeblood of the American Southwest by authorizing the transport of more than 1 billion gallons annually of additional oil on railcars traveling alongside the Colorado River,” the group said in a press release.
The Uinta Basin’s train traffic has spent much of the last year in the national spotlight, thanks to the environmental battles that have sprung up as local operators continue to increase production.
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a new railway project that would expand the basin’s takeaway capacity. The waxy texture of Uinta crude makes transport through a pipeline unfeasible.
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