Sky Quarry Taps 35-Year Refining Veteran to Run Foreland as Nevada's Only Refinery Enters Production
Former HF Sinclair, CITGO and Chevron leader Ray Hansen steps in as President of Foreland Refining just as the Eagle Springs refinery near Ely fires up — positioning SKYQ alongside independent refiners DINO, PBF, CVI and PARR.
WOODS CROSS, Utah, July 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equity Insider News Commentary — Sky Quarry Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYQ) has named refining-industry veteran Ray Hansen as President of its wholly owned subsidiary, Foreland Refining Corporation, a leadership move that lands precisely as the company's Eagle Springs refinery near Ely, Nevada shifts from build-out to production. For a small-cap energy name stepping into an operating role that puts it on the same field as established independent refiners, the appointment reads as a deliberate signal: Sky Quarry is assembling the kind of operational bench a producing refinery demands.
Key Takeaways
• Sky Quarry appointed Ray Hansen — a 35-plus-year veteran of HF Sinclair, CITGO Petroleum and Chevron — as President of Foreland Refining Corporation, its wholly owned refining subsidiary.
• The appointment follows Foreland Refining's entry into its production phase, with operations commencing at the Eagle Springs refinery near Ely, Nevada.
• Hansen most recently served as Vice President of HF Renewable Fuels and previously led HF Sinclair's 140,000 barrel-per-day El Dorado refinery, overseeing more than 260 operations personnel.
• Beyond the refinery, Hansen will help steer continued development of PR Spring, Sky Quarry's oil sands processing facility in Vernal, Utah.
• The move places SKYQ in operational conversation with independent U.S. refiners including HF Sinclair (NYSE:DINO), PBF Energy (NYSE:PBF), CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) and Par Pacific Holdings (NYSE:PARR).
A Hire Timed to the Production Ramp
Leadership hires are always about more than a name on an org chart, but the timing of this one is what makes it worth reading closely. Sky Quarry described itself as an energy infrastructure company focused on domestic refining and resource development, and the Hansen appointment arrives on the heels of a milestone the company had been building toward: Foreland Refining entering its production phase, with refinery operations commencing. Bringing in a president with decades of hands-on refinery leadership at exactly the moment operations begin is the sort of sequencing that suggests the company is preparing to run, not just to build.
As President of Foreland Refining, Hansen will lead the company's refining operations, including oversight of the Eagle Springs refinery near Ely, Nevada, and the continued development of PR Spring, the company's oil sands processing facility in Vernal, Utah. That dual mandate — a live refinery plus a development-stage resource asset — is a wide operational span, and it helps explain why Sky Quarry reached for someone with the depth of experience Hansen carries.
Who Sky Quarry Just Hired
Hansen brings more than 35 years of refining industry experience, including senior leadership positions with HF Sinclair, CITGO Petroleum and Chevron — three names that between them cover much of the modern American refining landscape. Most recently, he served as Vice President of HF Renewable Fuels, a role at the leading edge of the industry's shift toward renewable diesel and lower-carbon fuel production.
Before that, he led operations at HF Sinclair's 140,000 barrel-per-day El Dorado refinery, where he was responsible for refinery operations, engineering, logistics, environmental performance and the management of more than 260 operations personnel. Running a facility of that scale is a materially different discipline from standing one up, and it is precisely the operating experience a company entering its own production phase would want in the building. Over the course of his career, Hansen has built a reputation for improving refinery reliability, increasing throughput and executing major capital projects — the three levers that most directly determine whether a refinery generates cash or bleeds it.
Hansen holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley — an engineering foundation that maps cleanly onto the technical realities of refinery optimization.
What Management Is Signaling
"Ray has successfully led large-scale refinery operations, including the execution of a highly successful renewable fuels conversion project," said Marcus Laun, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Sky Quarry. "That's the kind of operational focus we need at Foreland Refining as we look to ramp production and prepare PR Spring for its next stage of development."
Hansen framed the opportunity around unlocking value from assets already in hand. "The Foreland Refinery and the PR Spring facility represent unique assets with tremendous potential," he said. "I'm looking forward to working with the team, building on the progress that's already underway, and finding new opportunities to improve performance. I've learned that some of the greatest gains can come from unlocking potential from existing assets, and I see similar opportunities here."
That last line is worth sitting with. An executive who has spent a career wringing incremental throughput and reliability out of established refineries is describing Sky Quarry's asset base in the same terms he'd apply to a major-refiner turnaround. For a company at Sky Quarry's stage, having someone in the president's chair who instinctively hunts for margin inside existing infrastructure — rather than assuming the answer is always more capital — is a meaningful orientation.
The Asset Behind the Hire
Sky Quarry positions itself as an energy infrastructure company focused on domestic refining and resource development. The centerpiece is the Foreland Refinery in Nevada, which — once operational — the company says will be the state's only operating refinery, producing diesel, vacuum gas oil (VGO), naphtha and asphalt for western U.S. markets. Being the sole refinery in a state is a rare structural position; it speaks to localized supply dynamics and logistics advantages that larger, coastal-concentrated refiners simply can't replicate in that specific corridor.
Alongside the refinery, Sky Quarry is advancing development initiatives at its PR Spring facility in Utah, its oil sands processing asset. The combination — a producing refinery paired with a resource-development project — is what gives the company both a near-term operating story and a longer-dated development angle, and it's the combination Hansen has now been asked to manage.
Where SKYQ Sits Among Independent Refiners
Sky Quarry is a fraction of the size of the established independent refiners, but the sector context is useful for understanding the environment it's stepping into — and the operating playbook Hansen is bringing with him. The U.S. independent-refiner group has drawn renewed investor attention as refining margins and crack spreads have moved through their cycle, and the names most often referenced as pure-play or independence-tilted operators offer a frame for the kind of business Foreland is now trying to run.
HF Sinclair Corporation (NYSE:DINO) — Hansen's own former employer — is the mid-cap independent that owns and operates seven refineries with total crude throughput capacity in the neighborhood of 678,000 barrels per day, spanning refining, renewables, marketing, lubricants and midstream. It's the reference point for the operational discipline Hansen is importing into Sky Quarry, and its recent performance has outpaced the broader oil-and-gas industry over the trailing year.
PBF Energy Inc. (NYSE:PBF) is one of the larger independent refiners by throughput, with a Gulf Coast-weighted footprint that tends to swing harder on crack-spread moves — the kind of leverage that cuts both ways depending on where refining margins sit in the cycle.
CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI) rounds out the smaller-independent tier, a mid-continent refiner whose earnings base makes it more sensitive on a percentage basis to margin swings than the majors, and a name frequently cited in the same breath as the other independents when investors screen the space.
Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PARR) operates refining and logistics assets with a Western and Pacific tilt — a geographic orientation that overlaps conceptually with the western-U.S. market Sky Quarry says Foreland's output is aimed at, making it a natural point of comparison for regional supply positioning.
None of this puts Sky Quarry on equal footing with multi-refinery operators running hundreds of thousands of barrels a day — it doesn't. But the comparison clarifies what Foreland is trying to become: a producing refiner in a defined regional market, run by someone who has operated at the scale SKYQ aspires to touch. The distance between a single Nevada refinery entering production and a seven-refinery independent is exactly the distance a hire like Hansen's is meant to help close.
The Bottom Line
Sky Quarry's appointment of Ray Hansen isn't a headline about a name — it's a signal about intent. A company entering its production phase just installed a president who has spent 35-plus years running exactly the kind of operation it's now trying to run, at names like HF Sinclair, CITGO and Chevron. Whether Foreland Refining can convert that experience into reliable throughput and margin is the story investors will be watching from here, but the hire itself tells you Sky Quarry is staffing for the job it actually has: running Nevada's only refinery, and doing it in the company of the independent refiners it now shares a sector with.
SIGNAL OVER NOISE
Signal over noise. Refining, energy-infrastructure, and small-cap production headlines move fast — and the crowd often moves first. Eagle Eye is a real-time investor signal-intelligence platform that surfaces sentiment shifts, news flow, and trending tickers as they happen, so you see the move forming instead of reading about it later. See it at eagle-eye.dev.
Contact
Equity Insider — info@equity-insider.com
Sources
[1] Sky Quarry Inc., "Sky Quarry Appoints Refining Industry Veteran Ray Hansen as President of Foreland Refining Corporation," ACCESS Newswire, July 9, 2026.
[2] Company disclosures and public market listing data for HF Sinclair (NYSE:DINO), PBF Energy (NYSE:PBF), CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) and Par Pacific Holdings (NYSE:PARR), as of July 9, 2026.
DISCLAIMER
This communication is distributed by Equity Insider on behalf of Market Equities Limited ("MEL"), an Irish company that owns and operates Equity Insider and a network of financial publishing brands. This article is a paid advertisement / digital media distribution. Market Equities Limited has been paid a fee by Creative Direct Marketing Group ("CDMG") for the production and distribution of this content and related media regarding Sky Quarry Inc. As of the date of publication, Market Equities Limited does not own any shares of Sky Quarry Inc. and does not intend to acquire any such shares; however, MEL and its affiliates, officers, directors and owner/operator reserve the right to buy and sell shares of the profiled company in the open market at any time without further notice.
This article contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the commencement and ramp of refinery operations, the development of the PR Spring facility, expected products and market position, and the anticipated benefits of the leadership appointment described herein. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including those described in Sky Quarry Inc.'s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not, and should not be construed as, financial, investment, tax or legal advice, or a recommendation, solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security. Comparisons to other companies, including HF Sinclair (NYSE:DINO), PBF Energy (NYSE:PBF), CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) and Par Pacific Holdings (NYSE:PARR), are provided for context and illustrative sector-positioning purposes only; those companies are not affiliated with, and have no relationship to, Sky Quarry Inc. or Market Equities Limited, and no comparison should be read as implying equivalence in size, financial condition, assets, operations or prospects. Always do your own due diligence and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision. This communication is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland.
