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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Foreign-Trade Zones Board
[Docket 49-97]
Foreign-Trade Zone 3, San Francisco, CA; Application for Foreign-Trade Subzone Status;
Chevron U.S.A. Inc.; (Oil Refinery Complex);
Richmond, CA
An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board
(the Board) by the San Francisco Port Commission, grantee of FTZ 3,
requesting special-purpose subzone status for the oil refinery complex
of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., located in Richmond, California. 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 June 12, 1997.
The refinery complex (240,000 BPD, 1,460 employees) is located on a
2,900-acre site at 841 Chevron Way, in Richmond (Contra Costa County),
California, some 25 miles northeast of San Francisco. The refinery is
used to produce fuels and petrochemical feedstocks. Fuel products
include gasoline, jet fuel, distillates, naphthas and motor fuel
blendstocks. Petrochemical feedstocks and refinery by-products include
methane, ethane, propane, propylene, butane, petroleum coke, sulfur and
carbon black oil. Some 11 percent of the crude oil (92 percent of
inputs), and some motor fuel blendstocks 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 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
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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
August 22, 1997. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted
during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-
day period (to September 8, 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, 250 Montgomery
Street, 14th Floor, San Francisco, California 94104
Office of the Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room
3716, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230
Dated: June 12, 1997.
Dennis Puccinelli,
Acting Executive Secretary.
[FR Doc. 97-16276 Filed 6-20-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P