By Sergio Chapa
Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Oct 19, 2017, 4:02pm CDT
Updated 36 minutes ago
Plans to build a refinery near the West Texas town of Fort Stockton may require around 45 billion pennies.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2...ild-a.html
Austin-based MMEX Resources Corp. (OTCPK: MMEX) created an earthquake in the penny stock trading world in March when the company announced ambitious plans to build a $450 million refinery in the Permian Basin.
Prior to the March 7 announcement, the company’s stock had gone three days without a single share being bought or sold. But on the day of the announcement, MMEX shares were traded more than 1 billion times — in what appears to be an all-time trading volume high for the company.
Over the days that followed, penny stock traders created a feeding frenzy. The value of the company’s stock went from being traded at 1/100th of a penny to a six-year high of 5.63 cents per share on April 4.
The company’s stated goal is the build a refinery that will take crude oil from the Permian Basin and turn it into gasoline, diesel and other products that will be shipped by rail to meed growing demand in Mexico.
A second-quarter filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that MMEX still has no revenue. Now the company lists $54,000 of cash in assets and $9 million in liabilities. With the company’s stock trading at about one penny, MMEX’s estimated 1.4 billion outstanding shares would worth about $14 million.
Far short of having the $450 million needed to build the refinery, some skeptics have decried the project as a “pump and dump” penny stock scheme, but MMEX Resources CEO Jack Hanks told the Business Journal in a past interview that he has taken many steps to move the project forward.
“It’s not a stock play,” Hanks said. “It’s a viable project. We’ve opened an office in Fort Stockton. We closed on the land. We’re very keen on making this into a viable project.”
Hanks tapped Tyler, Texas-based KP Engineering LP in March to design and build the refinery. And in April, it chose Dallas-based Trinity Consulting Inc. to handle the permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
MMEX opened an office in Fort Stockton, where it plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 17. Earlier this year, Hanks announced that the company would build the refinery in two phases. The first phase is to build a crude distillation unit, which would undergo a shorter review process for environmental permits, and the second phase is for a full-scale refinery capable of exporting products to Mexico.
On July 28, the company closed on a critical deal to buy 126 acres along the Texas Pacifico Railroad just northeast of Fort Stockton. Three days, later MMEX filed a 153-page environmental permit application for the crude distillation unit with the TCEQ.
In an Aug. 30 decision, state regulators with the TCEQ approved a permit for the first phase of MMEX’s project — a 10,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit that Houston-based VFuels LLC has been tapped to build.
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation announced that a $7 million federal grand would be used to repair 72 miles of railroad track along the Texas Pacifico Railroad and to help rebuild the international rail bridge between Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico.
“TxDOT’s planned recompletion of the bridge at Presidio-Ojinaga and improvements of the rail line from Alpine, Texas, to Presidio are a major step for exporters and importers of all commercial goods from Western Mexico out of and into the West Texas Permian Basin area,” Hanks said in a statement shortly after TxDOT’s announcement. “We located our proposed refinery site on the railroad in Pecos County, Texas, precisely for this reason.”
Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Oct 19, 2017, 4:02pm CDT
Updated 36 minutes ago
Plans to build a refinery near the West Texas town of Fort Stockton may require around 45 billion pennies.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2...ild-a.html
Austin-based MMEX Resources Corp. (OTCPK: MMEX) created an earthquake in the penny stock trading world in March when the company announced ambitious plans to build a $450 million refinery in the Permian Basin.
Prior to the March 7 announcement, the company’s stock had gone three days without a single share being bought or sold. But on the day of the announcement, MMEX shares were traded more than 1 billion times — in what appears to be an all-time trading volume high for the company.
Over the days that followed, penny stock traders created a feeding frenzy. The value of the company’s stock went from being traded at 1/100th of a penny to a six-year high of 5.63 cents per share on April 4.
The company’s stated goal is the build a refinery that will take crude oil from the Permian Basin and turn it into gasoline, diesel and other products that will be shipped by rail to meed growing demand in Mexico.
A second-quarter filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that MMEX still has no revenue. Now the company lists $54,000 of cash in assets and $9 million in liabilities. With the company’s stock trading at about one penny, MMEX’s estimated 1.4 billion outstanding shares would worth about $14 million.
Far short of having the $450 million needed to build the refinery, some skeptics have decried the project as a “pump and dump” penny stock scheme, but MMEX Resources CEO Jack Hanks told the Business Journal in a past interview that he has taken many steps to move the project forward.
“It’s not a stock play,” Hanks said. “It’s a viable project. We’ve opened an office in Fort Stockton. We closed on the land. We’re very keen on making this into a viable project.”
Hanks tapped Tyler, Texas-based KP Engineering LP in March to design and build the refinery. And in April, it chose Dallas-based Trinity Consulting Inc. to handle the permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
MMEX opened an office in Fort Stockton, where it plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 17. Earlier this year, Hanks announced that the company would build the refinery in two phases. The first phase is to build a crude distillation unit, which would undergo a shorter review process for environmental permits, and the second phase is for a full-scale refinery capable of exporting products to Mexico.
On July 28, the company closed on a critical deal to buy 126 acres along the Texas Pacifico Railroad just northeast of Fort Stockton. Three days, later MMEX filed a 153-page environmental permit application for the crude distillation unit with the TCEQ.
In an Aug. 30 decision, state regulators with the TCEQ approved a permit for the first phase of MMEX’s project — a 10,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit that Houston-based VFuels LLC has been tapped to build.
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation announced that a $7 million federal grand would be used to repair 72 miles of railroad track along the Texas Pacifico Railroad and to help rebuild the international rail bridge between Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico.
“TxDOT’s planned recompletion of the bridge at Presidio-Ojinaga and improvements of the rail line from Alpine, Texas, to Presidio are a major step for exporters and importers of all commercial goods from Western Mexico out of and into the West Texas Permian Basin area,” Hanks said in a statement shortly after TxDOT’s announcement. “We located our proposed refinery site on the railroad in Pecos County, Texas, precisely for this reason.”
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