Monroe asks US to reconsider condensate exports

OREANDA-NEWS. US Atlantic coast refiner Monroe Energy has petitioned the Commerce Department to reconsider a decision to allow the export of processed condensate, saying it contradicted four decades of energy policy without taking outside input.

Monroe, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, has asked that Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) withdraw recently published guidelines "and treat condensate as crude oil subject to the export ban."

Early last year, BIS began privately granting permission to export processed condensate to companies such as midstream operator Enterprise Products Partners and US independent Pioneer Natural Resources. In December, the agency published guidelines for anyone to export the material after BHP Billiton said it would push forward without a formal letter.

Monroe criticized the guideline publication as "opaque, and appears to be a post hoc rationalization for BIS' private letter rulings."

"The US is in dire need of new investments in refining to process the light, sweet crude now being produced in significant quantities in this country," Monroe's filing said. "Developing that domestic refining capacity would advance the country's energy independence, as well as generate jobs for American workers. Yet BIS' secret rulings and amorphous [guidelines] have frozen investments by American refiners."

Several refineries in the midcontinent and Gulf coast have undergone expansions or modifications to handle light crude or condensate, and some companies are proceeding with condensate splitters on the Gulf coast despite BIS' actions.

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Monroe, along with refineries Alon USA, PBF Energy and Philadelphia Energy Solutions, has formed an anti-export coalition called Consumers and Refiners United for Domestic Energy, or CRUDE.