New Oil Refinery Coming to North Dakota | Video

Amy Fox | 10/10/2012

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made a trip to New Town today, with a major announcement. The Secretary announced the federal government has reached a deal with the Three Affiliated Tribes to build a brand new oil refinery in the region.

The deal has been in the works for almost ten years, and if everything goes as planned, groundbreaking on the new refinery near New Town could happen as early as next spring.

"There`s so much production that is now coming into the country`s oil and gas just for the Bakken formation. And, secondly, because the tribe has a huge amount of that oil and gas and they had the willingness and they have the economic power now to be able to build a refinery,” said Salazar.

The new refinery would be 459 acres in size and would be the nation`s first new refinery to be built in 40 years. Salazar says the construction phase of the project could bring 800-1,000 new jobs to the area.

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