Four decades after a refinery in southern Oklahoma was closed, the property has been taken over by a development foundation in Duncan.
Stephens County Commissioners voted 3-0 this week on an agreement for the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation to manage the Stephens County Refinery property located between Duncan and the town of Comanche along old U.S. 81 highway.
The groups hope to increase economic development through improvement to the former refinery site, reported the Lawton Constitution. The refinery employed as many as 400 people between the 1920s and 1983, according to the agreement. Tosco Corp. closed the facility in 1983, and refining operations never resumed at that site.
Through the agreement, the Development Foundation will be required to subdivide, plat and create restrictive covenants for the former Sun Oil Co./Tosco Corp. refinery.
Under the agreement, the foundation will also perform the following tasks:
•Manage and promote development at the site.
•Recruit, market and attract new businesses.
•Provide economic development planning, support services and stakeholder engagement efforts.
DAEDF will work with county officials on applying for grants and other sources of funding to cover expenses associated with development, and it will bear all costs associated with the performance of its duties, according to the agreement, reported the Constitution.
The Duncan Refinery is located 5 miles south of Duncan, Oklahoma. The site consists entirely of property upon which refinery operations were conducted and oil and hydrocarbon fuel products were stored in physical structures thereon, from as early as 1920. Since its initial development in the 1920s, the site has had two distinct periods in its operational history. From the 1920s to 1947, the facility operated as an aviation fuel produce. From 1947 to 1983, the facility operated as a general oil refinery and an oil storage and refined hydrocarbon product storage area.
Phillips66 acquired the Tosco Corporation in September 2001. Tosco acquired the site in 1980 from Sun Oil. Tosco operated the refinery from 1980 to 1983. Alpha Oil Company purchased the refinery from Tosco in June of 1986. Several months later, Alpha Oil conveyed the site to Energy Realty, Inc., and Resource Recovery, Inc. each of which owns portions of the site. Stephens County became the owner of the site in approximately 2002-2003.
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