How the nation’s newest oil refinery could start construction in Brownsville sooner than expected

Port of Brownsville officials expect the first U.S. oil refinery in nearly 50 years to break ground next month, and that’s possible because the multi-billion-dollar, hydrogen-powered refinery project and crude oil pipeline were initially proposed more than a decade ago. 

America First Refining, the developer behind the 164,300-barrel-per-day oil refinery, was incorporated in December 2025. But its key executives have operated its predecessors since 2015, which enables the company to transfer ownership of key environmental permits. 

Dallas-based America First Refining CEO John Calce is also an executive with Centurion Terminals, ARX Energy, Jupiter Brownsville, and Element Fuels Holdings — all of which previously pitched a Port of Brownsville project dating back to 2015. 

The exact cost has not been disclosed, but the initial refinery startup was estimated at $1.2 billion, Calce told Fast Company in 2024. But it would ultimately cost between $3 billion and $4 billion to build. 

The Dallas company faced financial difficulties over the years as its project stalled. 

In 2019, creditors attempted to force Jupiter Brownsville into Chapter 7 bankruptcy — claiming they were owed $18.3 million. 

Now there’s one new key executive — an investor and former Trump White House official, Nick Ayers, who is the new vice chairman of America First Refining. 

“For years, investors believed building a new refinery in the United States was impossible,” Ayers said. “What changed was leadership and policy.” 

America First Refining has held a 240-acre lease at the Port of Brownsville on the south side of the ship channel for years, and the company has already done some site preparation and pre-construction on the land. Its predecessor Element Fuels had a deal with general contractor McDermott for front-end engineering design services and utilities. 

That’s because the company holds a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air permit, in addition to a stormwater permit from Texas that dates back to 2017. The air permits were approved in 2021.

It was not immediately clear whether permits for a very large crude oil carrier terminal about six miles off the Texas coast have been completed. The terminal would enable massive vessels to receive fuel produced at the refinery without entering the port, because the port’s waterways are too shallow and narrow. The Port of Brownsville recently dredged its waters deeper from 42 feet to 52 feet, but these very large oil tankers need upwards of 82 feet. 

Its 650-mile-long crude oil pipeline from the Permian Basin has yet to be built and would require landowner deals across Texas. 

The refinery is expected to export U.S. shale oil products to its customers and manufacture 85,200 barrels per day of ultra-low sulfur gasoline, 61,320 barrels per day of ultra-low sulfur diesel, and 12,840 barrels per day of gasoil, jet fuel, and specialized gasoline that meet standards for sale in Mexico City, which requires low-emission fuels and an unspecified amount of propane. 

Neither America First Refining nor its customer, Reliance Industries — a publicly traded multinational in India — confirmed a 20-year contract, but President Donald Trump touted the deal, naming Reliance as the customer. The deal is for 1.2 billion barrels of light shale oil worth $125 billion. The refinery is expected to produce 50 billion gallons of refined oil products over a 20-year period, worth $175 million. 

The overall value of the project is $300 billion, which would increase American exports and reduce the trade imbalance, something the Trump administration has pursued over the past year through a tariff war. 

The project is expected to bring 500 jobs with an average salary of $80,000 a year and support thousands of construction jobs in the coming years, according to the port. The goal is to ensure there are local training programs to increase workers across the Rio Grande Valley’s chances of securing those jobs. 

America First Refining claims that its low-carbon hydrogen will offset its carbon dioxide emissions, and any excess hydrogen — an estimated 100 megawatts of electricity — could be sold back to the power grid. 

“This will be the cleanest refinery on the planet,” said William Dietrich, CEO of the Port of Brownsville. “This is not yesterday’s refinery where you drive down the road, and you see smoke stacks up and down the highway. We’re not mixing industrial complexes with residential neighborhoods or anything like that. We’re far away from anybody.” 

The company’s air permit application projected that it would release a significant amount of greenhouse gases, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and other toxic gases into the air as part of its operations in 2017. There are two flares expected to be part of the project — flares are used as a safety measure to burn off excess hydrocarbons when an oil refinery either starts back up or must shut down. 

The refinery would be about 14 miles away from SpaceX, a rocket manufacturer near Boca Chica Beach, but port officials say the refinery would lie outside of the rocket’s immediate blast zone. 

The size of the proposed refinery would be roughly the same as the Citgo oil refinery in Corpus Christi — but Port of Brownsville leaders say they are not concerned about the lack of water, power, or significant environmental impact. 

“We are not going to be running out of water here at the Port of Brownsville or in Cameron County or Brownsville. We are going to have the necessary power,” Port of Brownsville Chairman Steve Guerra said. “We have looked at all of this.” 

Guerra said that, particularly regarding water and environmental issues, the Brownsville region foresaw that and addressed them. For example, there’s been a desalination plant in Brownsville for years. 

“We wish Corpus Christi the best, but we are very different ports,” he said.

Outside the Port of Brownsville offices, activists protested the oil refinery, something they’ve been doing for the past seven years, including trying to block the company’s air permits. 

“It’s devastating to see this oil refinery, which should have been dead by now, being revived by the Trump administration. We don’t want to see cancer clusters in Brownsville,” said Rebekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. “It’s terrifying to see this oil facility right next to giant exploding rockets. I’ve seen maps that show rocket debris falling all over the Port of Brownsville that would be on the side of the oil refinery.”