Work Underway on ND Tribal Refinery

MAKOTI, N.D. (AP) — Work is underway on a facility where oil will be shipped from a planned refinery on the Fort Berthold Reservation in northwestern North Dakota.

The Minot Daily News reports crews have begun moving dirt for the transload facility, the first part of the Three Affiliated Tribes' $450 million Thunder Butte Petroleum Services Inc. refinery project west of Makoti.

Refinery CEO Rich Mayer says the transload facility should be completed by June.

The tribes held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project last May and said construction would be done in several phases over two years. The plant will have the capacity to process up to 20,000 barrels of Bakken crude per day into diesel fuel and other products, and will create as many as 100 full-time jobs.