On a long-vacant patch of refinery land just south of Duncan, shovels finally hit dirt last Friday, kicking off a $400 million fuel plant redevelopment at the old Sunray/Tosco site. Green Fuels Operating is building a modular refinery initially sized at about 30,000 barrels per day, with room to grow. The plant is slated to turn out diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and other refined products, and local officials say it should support roughly 75 to 80 permanent jobs plus hundreds of indirect positions across the region.
The groundbreaking, hosted by the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation (DAEDF) and the Stephens County commissioners, drew a crowd of business leaders and elected officials eager to claim a win for a property that has sat quiet for decades. The foundation’s release notes the ceremony took place on the Stephens County Refinery Property about a half mile east of Old Highway 81 and Refinery Road, and confirms the land is officially certified for brownfield redevelopment, according to the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation.
What Green Fuels Plans To Build
Green Fuels is marketing the Duncan project as a “right-sized” 30,000-barrel-per-day modular refinery, with the city dedicating roughly 420 acres for the development and an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) study now underway. That size and site overview appear on the company’s project materials, per Clean Refineries.
The company says its modular facilities are built to scale and can be brought online in roughly 14 to 18 months after construction kicks off, according to Green Fuels Operating. If the schedule holds, the long-idle refinery ground could be back in the fuel business on a relatively fast timeline by industry standards.
A Long Cleanup, Now Certified
The celebratory tone on Friday sits on top of a far messier backstory. State files show the refinery tract has carried heavy industrial uses for about a century, with refinery operations running from the 1920s into the early 1980s. Those decades left contaminated soil and groundwater that had to be addressed before anyone could talk seriously about a new plant.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), ConocoPhillips, as Tosco’s successor, undertook investigations and cleanup under an Environmental Investigation, Remediation and Settlement Agreement. DEQ’s site summary outlines that work and lists where the public can review records tied to the project, per the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
Local Reaction And The Numbers
State and local officials are treating the project as a major vote of confidence in Duncan and Stephens County. Coverage of the event notes that U.S. Rep. Tom Cole and Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell were on hand to cheer the investment and tout the economic ripple effects. That reporting pegs the total capital spend at about $400 million, with storage capacity planned at up to 1,000,000 barrels and those 75 to 80 permanent jobs supported by hundreds of additional roles in surrounding supply chains, as reported by Texoma Homepage.
Earlier this year, DAEDF entered into a management agreement with Stephens County to shepherd the property through permitting and marketing, and officials say the next big checkpoints are local permits, final engineering and actual hiring before full-scale construction ramps up, according to the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation.
For residents who want to dig into the technical details rather than just the ribbon-cutting photos, DEQ maintains a public information repository at the Duncan Public Library, and its site summary spells out the remaining environmental tasks linked to the property, per the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
