Tar Sands Holdings II, LLC, which owns refining and real estate assets and minerals and mining rights in Vernal, and Integrated Rail and Resources Acquisition Corporation(IRRX), announced Monday a merger of the two companies resulting in a NASDAQ exchange listing. In an interview with Evans Family Media, IRRX Chairman and CEO Mark Michel explains that the refinery asset in Uintah County is expected to take about 9 to 12 months to get up online and fully restarted. The location was last operated in 2013 by a foreign company that worked to extract oil from tar sands but the operation failed and the location was shuttered. The restart and optimization of the asset by IRRX will be refining Uinta waxy crude and the future looks bright for the project. Michel says they have already commercialized the refinery with a global integrated energy company on board to provide the crude and purchase all the product making a great economic case for the refinery’s restart and operation. Michel also says they recognize the benefits this project can provide northeastern Utah. “We are looking to provide buoyancy and predictability to the industry from the standpoint of Uintah Basin production,” he shares. “It tends to be very cyclical with boom markets and crash markets so what we want to do is provide a constant demand signal for stabilization production and pricing and find more market outlets for the products we are going to make. It’s great for jobs. It’s great for the tax base and great for American energy independence and national security. We are trying to do everything we can to foster growth in the Basin and create jobs and livelihood for people who live there as their permanent residence that don’t want to leave and have to go to distant communities to raise their families,” he continues. “Instead, they can have good paying jobs locally in the Vernal community.” Michel also emphasized that they see Utah as a very friendly place to do business and the support of state and local officials add to their confidence as they spend dollars from outside Utah to develop a project like this.
