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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket 9-96]


Foreign-Trade Zone 154--Baton Rouge, Louisiana Application for
Subzone Status, Exxon Corporation (Oil Refinery/Petrochemical Complex),
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Area

    An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission, grantee of FTZ
154, requesting special-purpose subzone status for the oil refinery
complex of Exxon Corporation, located in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana
area. 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
February 7, 1996.

    The refinery and petrochemical complex (2,280 acres) covers six
sites in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area: Site 1 (980 acres, 424,000
BPD capacity)--main refinery complex, located at 4045 Scenic Hwy. on
the Mississippi River, East Baton Rouge Parish; Site 2 (140 acres,
11,000 tons/day capacity)--petrochemical plant, located adjacent to the
refinery at 4999 Scenic Hwy., East Baton Rouge Parish; Site 3 (580
acres, 1.5 million barrel capacity)--Maryland Tank Farm storage
facility/plastics plant, located at 11675 Scotland-Zachary Hwy., East
Baton Rouge Parish; Site 4 (60 acres, 5,000 BPD capacity)--lubricants
plant, located at 2230 Highway 1 North, across the Mississippi River
from the main refinery, West Baton Rouge Parish; Site 5 (460 acres, 2.9
million barrel capacity)--Anchorage Tank Farm, located adjacent to the
lubricants plant, West Baton Rouge Parish; and, Site 6 (100 acres, 6.5
million barrel capacity)--Sorrento Salt Dome, located on Louisiana Hwy.
3140, some 2 miles east of U.S. Hwy. 61, Ascension Parish. Exxon
operates the six sites as an integrated refinery/petrochemical complex.

    The refinery and petrochemical complex (4,000 employees) is used to
produce fuels, petrochemical feedstocks and petrochemical products.
Fuels produced include gasoline, jet fuel, distillates, gas oils,
residual fuels, and naphthas. Petrochemical feedstocks include
ethylene, propylene, isobutylene, butadiene, and benzene. Refinery by-
products include sulfur, carbon black oil, petroleum waxes, and
petroleum coke. The complex also produces petrochemcial products such
as lubricating oils, process oils, petroleum resins, benzene phthalic
anhydride, methyl ethyl ketone, alkyl esters, alcohols, neo acids,
isoprene, naphthenic acid, Vistalon Rubber, Exxon
Bromobutyl, Escorez Cyclics, Jayflex Plasticizer,
Exxate Solvents. Some 40 percent of the crude oil (85 percent
of inputs), and some feedstocks and motor fuel blendstocks used in
producing fuel products are sourced abroad.

    Zone procedures would exempt the refinery 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). The duty on crude oil
ranges from 5.25 cents to 10.5 cents/barrel. (The remaining finished
products--fuel and petrochemical products--generally have the same or
higher duty rates than crude oil, and for those products zone
procedures would be primarily used to defer Customs duty payments.) 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
[60 days from date of publication]. Rebuttal comments in response to
material submitted during the foregoing period may be submitted during
the subsequent 15-day period (to [75 days from date of publication]).

    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, One Canal Place, 365 Canal
Street, Suite 2150, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room
3716, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.

    Dated: February 7, 1996.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,
Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-3753 Filed 2-20-96; 8:45 am]