Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 18 / Friday, January 26, 1996 / Notices 2487

the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as

amended (19 U.S.C. 81a-81u), and the

regulations of the Board (15 CFR part

400). It was formally filed on January

18, 1996.

The refinery/petrochemical complex

(983 acres) 1600 employees) consists of

4 sites in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana:

Site 1 (220,000 BPD capacity, 826

acres)—main refinery complex located

on the Mississippi River at 15536 River

Road and Louisiana Hwy 48, near

Norco, including some 40 miles of

connecting pipeline ending at the

Clovelly Dome Storage Terminal and a

dedicated pipeline from the adjacent

GATX Tank Terminal; Site 2 (142

acres)—chemical plant located adjacent

to the main refinery at 16122 River

Road; Site 3 (45,000 BPD capacity, 15

acres)—refinery, located at 11842 River

Road, 6 miles east of the main complex,

near St. Rose; and Site 4 (13 leased tanks

with 1,713,000 barrel capacity)—storage

facility within International MATEX

Tank Terminals (IMTT), located

adjacent to Site 3. The refineries,

petrochemical plant, storage facility and

pipelines operate as an integral part of

the refinery/petrochemical complex.

The refinery is used to produce fuels,

petrochemical feedstocks and

petrochemical products. Fuels produced

include gasoline, jet fuel, distillates,

residual fuels, and naphthas.

Petrochemical feedstocks include

methane, ethane, propane, butane,

butylene, ethylene, propylene and

butadiene. Refinery by-products include

sulfur and petroleum coke. The refinery

complex also produces petrochemical

products including epoxy resins,

epichlorohydrin, methyl ethyl ketone,

allyl chloride, secondary butyl alcohol

and MTBE. About one-quarter of the

crude oil (87 percent of inputs), and

some feedstocks and motor fuel

blendstocks used in producing fuel

products are sourced abroad. In

addition, some feedstocks used in

chemical manufacturing may be sourced

abroad including sulphuric acid and

methyl mercaptan.

Zone procedures would exempt the

operations involved from Customs duty

payments on the foreign products used

in its exports. On domestic sales, the

company would be able to choose the

finished product duty rate

(nonprivileged foreign status—NPF) on

certain petrochemical feedstocks and

refinery by-products (duty-free). The

duty on crude oil ranges from duty-free

to 10.5/barrel. (The remaining finished

products—fuel and petrochemical

products—generally have higher duty

rates than crude oil, and for those

products zone procedures would be

primarily used to defer Customs duty

payments.) The application indicates

that the savings from zone procedures

would help improve the refinery’s

international competitiveness of the

plants involved.

In accordance with the Board’s

regulations, a member of the FTZ Staff

has been designated examiner to

investigate the application and report to

the Board.

Public comment is invited from

interested parties. Submissions (original

and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the

Board’s Executive Secretary at the

address below. The closing period for

their receipt is March 26, 1996. Rebuttal

comments in response to material

submitted during the foregoing period

may be submitted during the subsequent

15-day period (to April 10, 1996).

A copy of the application and

accompanying exhibits will be available

for public inspection at each of the

following locations:

U.S. Department of Commerce District

Office, #1 Allen Center, Suite 1160,

500 Dallas, Houston, Texas 77002

Office of the Executive Secretary,

Foreign-Trade Zones Board, Room

3716, U.S. Department of Commerce,

14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,

Washington, DC 20230

Dated: January 19, 1996.

John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,

Executive Secretary.

[FR Doc. 96–1307 Filed 1–25–96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P

[Docket A(27F)-43–95]

Foreign-Trade Zone 115, Beaumont, TX

Subzone 115B, Mobil Oil Corporation

(Crude Oil Refinery Complex); Request

for Minor Modification of Restriction

A request has been submitted to the

Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board)

by the Foreign Trade Zone of Southeast

Texas, Inc., grantee of FTZ 115,

pursuant to § 400.27(f) of the Board’s

regulations, for a minor modification of

the restrictions in FTZ Board Order 780

authorizing Subzone 115B at the crude

oil refinery complex of Mobil Oil

Corporation (Mobil) in the Beaumont,

Texas, area. The request was formally

filed on December 14, 1995.

The FTZ Board approved subzone

status for the Mobil refinery in 1995

(Subzone 115B, Board Order 780, 60 FR

54471, 10/24/95). The approval was

subject to certain standard restrictions.

The company is now requesting that

restriction #2, which allows the election

of non-privileged foreign (NPF) status

(19 CFR 146.42) on refinery inputs

covered under HTSUS Subheadings #

2709.00.1000 - # 2710.00.1050 and #

2710.00.2500, be extended to cover

HTSUS Subheading #2710.00.4510—

natural gas condensate.

The request indicates that the HTSUS

number for this input was omitted from

the list of refinery inputs in the original

subzone application and that the

product functions like crude oil with

respect to the refining process.

Public comment on the proposal is

invited from interested parties.

Submissions (original and 3 copies)

shall be addressed to the Board’s

Executive Secretary at the address

below. The closing period for their

receipt is February 26, 1996.

A copy of the application and

accompanying exhibits will be available

for public inspection at the following

location: Office of the Executive

Secretary, Foreign-Trade Zones Board,

U.S. Department of Commerce, Room

3716, 14th & Pennsylvania Avenue,

NW., Washington, DC 20230.

Dated: January 19, 1996.

John J. Da Ponte, Jr.,

Executive Secretary.

[FR Doc. 96–1308 Filed 1–25–96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P

[Docket 3–96]

Foreign-Trade Zone 147, Reading,

Pennsylvania Area; Application for

Expansion

An application has been submitted to

the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the

Board) by the Foreign Trade Zone

Corporation of Southeastern

Pennsylvania, grantee of Foreign-Trade

Zone 147, requesting authority to

expand its zone in Reading,

Pennsylvania, to include additional

sites in the Counties of Berks and York,

adjacent to the Philadelphia and

Harrisburg Customs ports of entry. The

application was submitted pursuant to

the provisions of the Foreign-Trade

Zones Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a81u), and the regulations of the Board

(15 CFR Part 400). It was formally filed

on January 17, 1996.

FTZ 147 was approved on June 28,

1988 (Board Order 378, 53 FR 26094, 7/

11/88). The zone project currently

consists of 3 industrial park parcels (200

acres) at the 865-acre Reading

Municipal Airport, operated by the

Reading Municipal Airport Authority.

The applicant now requests authority

to expand the existing zone to include

the entire 865-acre Airport complex

(Site 1), and add five new sites. Three

of the new sites (Sites 4–6) are being

requested as part of a cooperative effort

with York County officials. Two of the

sites in York County involve a number