industry

Jet fuel produced at Jamnagar refinery from US, Mexican crude is of Indian origin: US agency


Jet fuel produced at the Reliance Refinery in Jamnagar from American and Mexican crude oil is of Indian-origin for the purpose of procurement by the US government, a federal agency has determined.

As such Long Beach, California-based Anoi Inc, which produces a specific kind of jet fuel, identified as J5, to be sold to the US Defense Logistics Agency, would now require waiver from the current “Buy American” restrictions.

In a federal notification, the US Customs and Border Protection overruled the request by Anoi Inc that the jet fuel being produced by it at Reliance Refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, be considered to be of US and Mexican origin, which was the source of the petroleum crude oil.

The notification would be issued on December 3.

At the refinery, Anoi Inc said in its application that “there will be a ‘one-step’ transformation of crude to straight-run distillate.”

The process consists of desalting and heating the crude, and then distilling out the sulfur from the middle distillate kerosene with the use of a Merox Oxidation unit that removes the sulfur from the kerosene jet fuel.

Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) also requires certain additives to achieve JP5 jet fuel MILSPEC, it said.

Overruling the argument by Anoi Inc, US Customs and Border Protection in its federal notification determined that a substantial “transformation occurs” in the petroleum crude oil imported from the US and Mexico at the Jamnagar refinery.

“In this case, we find the JP5 specification jet fuel is clearly a new and different article with a new name, character, and use from that of the petroleum crude oil from which it was refined,” the CBP said.

Although there may be no double substantial transformation, the process to create jet fuel from straight crude oil to straight-run distillate still involves desalting and the application of heat distillation coupled with the utilization of the Merox Oxidation unit to remove sulfur, which results in the creation of jet fuel, it noted.

According to the CBP Laboratories and Scientific Services Directorate, the forensic and scientific arm of US Customs and Border Protection, the petroleum crude oil is substantially transformed into JP5 by the petroleum refining process of distillation, said the federal notification.

As such, CBP determined that the “country of origin of the produced JP5 will be the country in which the substantial transformation (distillation) occurs, namely India,” the notification said.

CBP took about an year to give its determination on the application in this regard by Anoi Inc.





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.