Meridian Energy lets contract for North Dakota refinery

Meridian Energy Group Inc. has let a contract to McDermott International Inc. to finalize front-end engineering design for Meridian’s recently approved grassroots 49,500-b/sd high-conversion Davis refinery to be built in Billings County in the heart of southwestern North Dakota’s Bakken shale region (OGJ Online, Aug. 10, 2016).

Following the completion of the FEED effort, the parties will be prepared to enter into a comprehensive turnkey engineering, procurement and construction agreement to build the refinery, McDermott said.

Meridian previously initiated site preparation and grading at the Davis site and currently is proceeding with final design, equipment fabrication, and procurement, with full construction activities and foundation work to resume in spring 2019.

This latest contract follows Meridian’s award to GATE Energy to deliver commissioning and start-up services for the refinery, as well as a contract to Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. subsidiary SEH Design Build Inc. to deliver site, civil design, and construction services for the project (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2018).

The North Dakota Department of Health’s division of air quality previously issued Meridian the final permit-to-construct the project—under the first application in history for a full-conversion refinery of this size and complexity to seek and receive permitting to construct under classification as a synthetic minor source of air contaminants—in June (OGJ Online, June 13, 2018).

In September, Meridian said the Davis refinery is scheduled to be fully operational in 2020.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].