The Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation (DAEDF) and Stephens County Commissioners hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on May 29, 2026, for Green Fuels Operating's $400 million refinery.
The refinery will be located at the site of a former refining complex dating to the 1920s, bringing clean-engineered fuel production, career-level jobs and long-term economic investment to Stephens County, Okla.
The ceremony drew state and federal officials, including U.S. Rep. Tom Cole and Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, alongside 125 community leaders and supporters who gathered to mark the first major industrial investment at the site in more than four decades, and what officials are calling one of the most significant private energy investments in Oklahoma in a generation, according to Green Fuels Operating.
A contractor wasn't announced.
The former Sunray Corp./Sun Oil Co./Tosco Corp. refinery operated as an aviation fuel producer from the 1920s until 1947, then as a general oil refinery and hydrocarbon storage facility through 1983, when Tosco Corp. closed the facility.
In February 2026, DAEDF entered into a management agreement with Stephens County to market, promote, and facilitate economic development at the property. As the successor to the Duncan Industrial Foundation and the region's lead economic development organization since 1954, DAEDF began actively recruiting businesses for the site. The partnership with Green Fuels Operating is the first major result of those efforts.
Green Fuels Operating's new facility will have an initial refining capacity of 30,000 barrels per day, expandable to 50,000 barrels per day, with storage for up to 1 million barrels.
The refinery will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year across three shifts, producing a diverse portfolio of refined products including:
• asphalt
• naphtha
• kerosene
• diesel
• gasoline
• aviation fuel
The project will create 75 to 80 permanent full-time jobs, along with hundreds of indirect positions throughout the region in skilled trades, engineering, operations, and technician roles.
Green Fuels Operating deploys advanced, patented hydrocarbon processing technology utilizing flash vacuum separation and a closed-loop emissions capture system to reduce emissions, recover vapors, and operate at lower processing temperatures than conventional refining.
"We're bringing the refinery back to Oklahoma," said Derek Williamson, CEO of Green Fuels Operating. "I'm not talking about it, I'm not studying it, I'm not running the numbers one more time. We're actually doing it. America has spent 50 years losing refineries. We made a decision: We're going to change that story. Refining is coming home, and we're just getting started." ♣
