Conoco Phillips Illinois Refinery Expansion Stalled By EPA Permit Rejection

Houston, TX (AHN) - An appeal board of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday denied air permits needed for Conoco Phillips to expand production at its Illinois Wood River refinery.

Earlier this year Conoco Phillips entered a joint venture with Calgary-based Encana in an effort to increase the volume of heavy Canadian crude processed in the U.S.

The venture, in which Encana took a 50 percent stake in two of Conoco's U.S. refineries, targeted an increase in Canadian crude from 60,000 barrels a day to 500,000 by 2015. The EPA decision has thrown somewhat of a wrinkle into the plan.

"We're reviewing it and assessing what we need to do next," said ConocoPhillips spokesman Bill Graham according to Dow Jones Newswire.

The intention of the denial was not to stop the expansion project, but to ensure the refinery lives up to standards of the Clean Air Act, critics said.

"Conoco Phillips simply ignored the requirement to find and use the best available pollution control technology," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, which had opposed the permits.