Holly considers constructing fuel pipeline

Holly Energy Partners is considering building a petroleum products pipeline between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

Dallas-based HEP said late Wednesday it is sending an information package to check on support for the project from potential shippers. It will assess the level of support after May 31, the deadline it has set for getting nonbinding indications of possible shipping volumes and terms.

The proposal calls for a 12-inch pipeline running about 400 miles. HEP said it would be able to move 50,000 barrels per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The company did not disclose the cost of constructing the line.

HEP said Las Vegas now receives its petroleum products entirely from a common-carrier pipeline from Southern California.

"The proposed pipeline would allow Salt Lake City refiners and other Rocky Mountain refiners that deliver products into Salt Lake City via pipeline to economically and efficiently meet the current and future supply requirements of Las Vegas while minimizing the need for product imports from the West Coast," the company said.

HEP provides refined petroleum product transportation and terminal services to the petroleum industry, including Holly Corp., which owns a 45 percent interest in the partnership. The partnership owns and operates refined product pipelines and terminals in several states, including Utah. Holly Corp. operates a refinery in Woods Cross.

In February, Holly Corp., Holly Energy Partners and Enbridge Energy Company Inc. announced plans to build an oil pipeline from eastern Utah to Woods Cross. The 16-inch-diameter underground line would carry crude oil from an interconnection with Frontier Pipeline near the Wyoming border to Holly's Woods Cross refinery, with connections to other local refineries. It would pass through Summit, Morgan and Davis counties.