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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket 33-97]
Foreign-Trade Zone 82--Mobile, Alabama; Application for Foreign-
Trade Subzone Status, Shell Oil Company (Oil Refinery Complex), Mobile
County, Alabama
An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the City of Mobile, Alabama, grantee of FTZ 82,
requesting special-purpose subzone status for the oil refinery complex
of Shell Oil Company, located in Mobile County, Alabama. The
application was submitted pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign-
Trade Zones Act, as amended (19 USC 81a-81u), and the regulations of
the Board (15 CFR part 400). It was formally filed on April 16, 1997.
The refinery complex (847 acres, 130 employees) consists of 2 sites
in Mobile County, Alabama: Site 1 (811 acres)--refinery complex located
at 400 Industrial Parkway, Extension East, near the intersection of
State Highway 158 and 43, on Chickasaw Creek, some 10 miles north of
Mobile; Site 2 (36 acres)--terminal and storage facility (6 tanks/ 1.3
million barrel capacity) located at Highway 90 Alternate and Bay Bridge
Road, Blakely Island, on the Mobile River, some seven miles south of
the refinery. The refinery (74,000 BPD) is used to produce fuels and
petrochemical feedstocks. Fuel products include gasoline, jet fuel,
distillates, residual fuels, naphthas and motor fuel blendstocks.
Petrochemical feedstocks and refinery by-products include methane,
ethane, propane, liquid natural gas, propylene, ethylene, butylene,
butane, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xylene, carbon black oil and
sulfur. Some 52 percent of crude oil and four percent of the natural
gas condensate (45% and 55% of inputs, respectively) are sourced
abroad.
Zone procedures would exempt the refinery under the FTZ from
Customs duty payments on the foreign products used in its exports. On
domestic sales, the company would be able to choose the Customs duty
rates that apply to certain petrochemical feedstocks and refinery by-
products (duty-free) by admitting incoming foreign crude oil and
natural gas condensate in non-privileged foreign status. The duty rates
on inputs 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
July 1, 1997. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted
during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-
day period (to July 16, 1997).
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, Export Assistance Center, Medical Forum
Building, 7th Floor, 950 22nd Street North, Birmingham, AL 35203
Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room
3716, U.S. Department of Commerce 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
Dated: April 23, 1997.
John J. Da Ponte, Jr. Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 97-11457 Filed 5-1-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P