EnvironmentKoch companies have had a presence in Canada for decades. Our businesses – including Flint Hills Resources, Koch Fertilizer, Georgia-Pacific, Koch Exploration, Koch-Glitsch, Koch Heat Transfer and INVISTA – employ more than 2,000 people in manufacturing, trading, marketing and sales throughout Canada. This publicly available Canada fact sheet provides information about Koch’s diverse operations, safety and environmental commitment, and community stewardship in Canada.
Our Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minn., was built in the 1950s specifically to handle heavy Canadian crude oil. Koch purchased controlling interest in the refinery in 1969. Today, Pine Bend is one of the safest and cleanest refineries operating in theUnited States and in the top quartile for energy efficiency. Pine Bend is also among the top processors of Canadian oil in the U.S. and a leader in providing cleaner-burning fuels including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane and butane as well as other petroleum products such as asphalt. The Canadian oil we process is shipped to the refinery via pipeline systems that have been in operation for decades.
Canadian oil is a critically important resource for the United States. A stable and friendly trading partner, Canada is the United States’ number one supplier of imported oil, and has about 15 percent of the world’s oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia. Canada’s oil sands will be developed – if not for the U.S., then for other countries. The U.S. is the most efficient and environmentally responsible transportation destination for Canadian oil.
Finally, with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline, Koch Industries has no financial stake in the proposed project and we are not party to its design or construction. We are not a proposed shipper or customer of oil delivered by this pipeline. This was verified by TransCanada’s CEO in a November 2011 statement.
