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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Foreign-Trade Zones Board [Docket 26-96] Foreign-Trade Zone 161--Sedgwick County, KS, Application for Subzone Status; Texaco Inc., (Oil Refinery Complex) Butler County, KSAn application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board) by the Board of Commissioners of Sedgwick County, Kansas, grantee of FTZ 161, requesting special-purpose subzone status for the oil refinery complex of Texaco Inc., located in Butler County, Kansas. The application was submitted pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the regulations of the Board (15 CFR part 400). It was formally filed on April 2, 1996.
The refinery complex (578 acres, 517 employees) consists of 2 sites and connecting pipelines in Butler County, 35 east of Wichita, Kansas: Site 1 (460 acres)--main refinery complex (110,000 BPD) located at 1401 Douglas Road, just south of El Dorado; Site 2 (118 acres)--crude oil storage facility (1.2 mil. barrel capacity) located at 3913 SW 10th Street, 3 miles west of the refinery.
The refinery complex is used to produce fuels and petrochemical feedstocks. Fuels produced include gasoline, jet fuel, distillates, diesel, and residual fuels. Petrochemical feedstocks and refinery by- products include methane, ethane, propane, butane, butylene, toluene, propylene, cumene, sulfur, carbon black and petroleum coke. About 46 percent of the crude oil (90 percent of inputs), and some feedstocks and motor fuel blendstocks used in producing fuel products are sourced abroad.
Zone procedures would exempt the operations involved from Customs duty payments on the foreign products used in its exports. On domestic sales, the company would be able to choose the finished product duty rate (nonprivileged foreign status--NPF) on certain petrochemical feedstocks and refinery by-products (duty-free) instead of the duty rates that would otherwise apply to the foreign-sourced inputs (e.g., crude oil). The duty rates on crude oil range from 5.25 cents/barrel to 10.5 cents/barrel. The application indicates that the savings from zone procedures would help improve the refinery's international competitiveness.
In accordance with the Board's regulations, a member of the FTZ Staff has been designated examiner to investigate the application and report to the Board.
Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions (original and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the Board's Executive Secretary at the address below. The closing period for their receipt is June 24, 1996. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15- day period (to July 8, 1996).
A copy of the application and accompanying exhibits will be available for public inspection at each of the following locations:
U.S. Department of Commerce District Office, 151 N. Volutsia, Wichita, Kansas 67214 Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room 3716, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: April 9, 1996. John J. Da Ponte, Jr., Executive Secretary. [FR Doc. 96-9983 Filed 4-22-96; 8:45 am]