Nevada’s only crude oil refinery has restarted production.
After receiving an air permit from Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the Eagle Springs Refinery near Ely, Nevada, is back up and running. The refinery officially restarted operations on Thursday, according to a news release.
Sky Quarry, a Utah-based energy infrastructure company, has owned the Eagle Springs Refinery since 2022 when it acquired Foreland Refining Corporation, which remains its operator.
The refinery shut down in the fourth quarter of 2025 due to a boiler repair and related issues, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings from the company. In preparation for the reopening, the refinery received around $300,000 in repairs and upgrades.
The refinery specifically produces diesel, vacuum gas oil, naphtha and liquid paving asphalt from crude oil suppliers in the Uintah basin near Nevada and Utah, according to SEC filings.
“Receiving this permit and restarting Nevada’s only crude oil refinery is a major step for Sky Quarry,” said Interim Chief Executive Officer of Sky Quarry Marcus Laun in a statement. “Nevada has relied on fuel refined elsewhere for too long.”
Sky Quarry called the refinery “one of the most strategically positioned refining assets in the Western United States,” in a news release from June.
Nevada has long been plagued by high gas prices due to its reliance on fuel from surrounding regions. With the reopening of the Eagle Springs Refinery, Sky Quarry hopes to provide refining capacity directly to Nevada and “throughout the broader Intermountain West region,” said a news release.
Although, in terms of size, Eagle Springs Refinery is considered small. It has a daily capacity of 5,000 barrels of crude oil and 15,000 barrels of crude oil inventory.
By comparison, the largest refinery in the country is the Port Arthur Refinery in Texas, which refines 656,400 barrels of crude oil per day as of Jan. 1, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Nevada’s pain at the pump has only been further exacerbated by multiple California refineries closures. Most recently the Valero Benicia Refinery, which had a 145,000 barrels per day capacity, closed in April , among others.
Despite its small size, Sky Quarry is in support of expanding oil exploration and production in Nevada. The news release cited the U.S. Geological Survey from 2025, which estimates Nevada contains approximately 1.4 billion barrels of undiscovered oil resources.
“If more Nevada crude comes to market, Eagle Springs could refine suitable barrels in-state and grow with Nevada’s oil industry,” said Sky Quarry in a news release.
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
