Oil Refining

Prof. Dr J.
Clifford Jones
Oil Refining
The International Scene
Foreword by Ken Rivers, President of the Institution of
Chemical Engineers

PROF. DR. J. CLIFFORD JONES
OIL REFINING: THE

INTERNATIONAL SCENE
2
Oil Refining: The International Scene
1st edition
© 2019 Prof. Dr. J. Clifford Jones & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-3003-8
Cover picture shows an oil refinery in Houston, Texas
3
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Contents
CONTENTS
Foreword 8
1 Preambulary discussion 10
References 11
2 The EU and non-EU European countries 12

2.1 Country-by country coverage of the EU 12
2.2 Further comments on EU countries 34
2.3 European countries other than EU countries 35
References 37
3 The OPEC countries and former OPEC countries 46

3.1 Overview 46
3.2 Supplementary comments 64
3.3 Non-OPEC Middle East countries 64
References 66
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4 The USA and Canada 75

4.1 Overview of the USA 75
4.2 Overview of Canada 103
4.3 Concluding remarks 106
References 107
5 Central America, South America and the Caribbean 118

5.1 Overview of Central America 118
5.2 Overview of South America 122
5.3 Overview of the Caribbean 129
5.4 Further comments 130
References 130
6 The Former Soviet Union 136

6.1 Overview by country 136
6.2 Further remarks 143
References 144
7 The Indian Subcontinent 146

7.1 Introduction 146
7.2 The Indian refineries classified by location 146
7.3 Pakistan 153
7.4 Bangladesh 154
7.5 Sri Lanka 154
7.6 Afghanistan 155
References 156
8 Japan, South Korea and North Korea 158

8.1 Refineries in Japan 158
8.2 Refineries in South Korea 165
8.3 North Korea 168
References 168
9 China, Taiwan and Mongolia 172

9.1 Major refineries in China (strictly People’s Republic of China, PRC) 172
9.2 Teapot refineries 180
9.3 Refineries in Taiwan 181
9.4 Mongolia 183
References 183
5
10 Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea 187

10.1 Past and present refineries in Australia 187
10.2 New Zealand 190
10.3 Papua New Guinea 190
References 191
11 The Far East 192

11.1 Malaysia 192
11.2 Thailand 195
11.3 Vietnam 196
11.4 The Philippines 197
11.5 Singapore 197
11.6 Other countries in the region 201
References 201
12 Africa 204
12.1 Introduction 204
12.2 Cameroon 204
12.3 Chad 204
12.4 Côte d’Ivoire 205
12.5 Egypt 205
12.6 Ghana 207
12.7 Kenya 208
12.8 Morocco 208
12.9 Senegal 209
12.10 South Africa 210
12.11 Sudan 211
12.12 Tanzania 212
12.13 Tunisia 213
12.14 Small refineries in other African countries 213
12.15 General afterword 214
References 214
6
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE
Dedicated to:
Eileen Fletcher (Bowyer)
at the time of her 90th birthday.
7
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Foreword
FOREWORD
Oil refineries are a critical part of the global industrial infrastructure providing energy &
chemical products on which the world depends. Professor Clifford Jones’ book provides a
whistle stop tour round the many and varied refinery facilities that exist today stretching
right around the globe. Each one is different. Each one is shaped by its history and the
location’s particular challenges in terms of crude supply and market requirements. The result
is an amazingly diverse network of facilities essential to growing the world’s economies and
serving society’s needs not only today but for the foreseeable future.
When I started my career in the downstream oil industry in 1975, there were 19 refineries
in the UK and today there are only 6. And yet the importance of those oil refineries has
never been more important in securing the resilience of the nation’s energy supplies.
The geographical pattern of refinery capacity has changed markedly in those intervening
years too with many facilities closing in the developed world, and with new, larger and more
complex refineries springing up in oil producing countries and in the rapidly developing
economies of Asia.
This has impacted on the oil product supply balances with the developed world moving from
significant exporters of oil products to significant importers, and with a growing reliance
on product supply from those new refineries.
Over the same period, there has been a substantial growth in global demand for oil products
but also a marked change in its makeup. There has been a significant decline in residual
fuel oil, a marked shift from petrol to diesel, a sustained growth in aviation turbine fuel
and an unrelenting pressure to reduce environmental impact of both facilities and oil
products. These developments have provided significant challenges to refineries in terms of
investments, which coupled with low and sometimes volatile margins, have impacted on
their economic viability.
The pattern of ownership has changed too. National oil companies/state owned enterprises
play a much bigger role. Joint venture activities help spread risk and the oil majors play a
much smaller part of the makeup which has opened up opportunities to new market entrants.
Professor Clifford Jones’ book provides a truly global perspective on oil refining activity.
The diversity of the facilities in terms of size & complexity reflect the interplay of historic,
economic and political factors as refineries attempted to find their particular niche in matching
available crude supply sources to their market demands economically and sustainably in a
very interconnected world.
8
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Foreword
The detailed snapshot Professor Clifford Jones provides of the global refinery scene shows
a vibrant and important international business sector delivering the energy and chemical
products that society needs. Refineries will continue to play an important role in the years
ahead, whether as a provider of a transitional fuel supply on the journey to a sustainable
low carbon economy or of a vital pathway to producing the chemicals & pharmaceuticals
on which the world depends.
The recently published BP Energy Outlook 2019 shows oil consumption of 4.5 billion tonnes
in 2017 with projections ranging from 4 to 6 billion tonnes for 2040. One way or another
oil refineries, which convert crude oil into useful and saleable products & intermediates,
are going to be an important part of our global industrial base for a significant time into
the future.
Ken Rivers June 2019
Ken Rivers is currently President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. His

extensive international career in the downstream oil industry spans 40 years and
included being CEO of Refining NZ and responsibility for Shell’s UK refining
operations. He is a past President of UK Petroleum Industry Association. He also
chaired the ‘Midstream Oil Sector Government and Industry Task Force’, which
considered ways of improving the resilience of the UK oil product supplies following
the government’s review of the Refining and Fuel Import Sectors in 2014.
9
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Preambulary discussion
1 PREAMBULARY DISCUSSION
It is one of the most widely known facts of the oil industry (e.g. [1]) that the first oil well
in the US was that at Titusville Pennsylvania, developed by E.L. Drake and first producing
in 1859. It is much less widely known where the oil from it went for refining. In fact it
went in fact to a refinery in Pittsburgh owned by one Samuel Kier [2]. There the oil was
heated in horizontal receptacles (‘stills’) capable of holding about 200 gallons. That there
was a ‘ready-made’ refinery at the time of the Drake well is remarkable. Samuel Kier was
in the salt well business, and frequently brine from a salt well was contaminated with crude
oil from seepage. Kier did not dismiss the oil as an annoyance but started to collect and
refine it to make illuminating oil, which was sold for $1.50 per gallon. That was several
years before the Drake well, oil from which was naturally directed to Kier’s refinery. At
$1.50 per gallon the illuminating oil was a highly expensive commodity. Application of
an online ‘purchasing power calculator’ indicates that this is equivalent to about $50 per
gallon at the 2019 value of the US dollar. Samuel Kier’s illuminating oil would have had
to compete on the market with whale oil and possibly with tallow candles.
The average daily amount of crude oil refined in 2018 was 82.2 million barrels [3]. A useful
approximate correlation is the ‘7 barrel per metric tonne rule’, according to which a tonne
of crude oil contains 7 barrels = (7 × 0.159) m3 = 1.113 m3 or (7 × 42) US gallons = 294
US gallons. Obviously, this is precisely true only for a particular crude oil density, but the
rule is often applied in an approximate fashion without knowledge of the precise density
as indeed it is in several places in this text. The ‘particular crude oil density’, for which 1
tonne has a volume of exactly 7 barrels, is 898 kg m-3 as the interested reader can easily
confirm. It sometimes comes as a surprise to the newcomer to petroleum technology that
API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity, for over a century the way of expressing the
density of a particular crude oil, is an inverse scale, that is, the higher the density the lower
the API gravity. That is for the following reason.
When in the early 20th Century the motor car proliferated, gasoline was by far the most
important product from crude oil. The lighter the crude the more plentiful the gasoline
fraction, so lighter crudes attracted higher prices than heavier ones. It was thought desirable
to have an ‘index’ which increases with increasing gasoline content and therefore has to
be an inverse density. Imagine trying to explain to untutored purchasers of crude oil why
a crude scoring a low value of an important quality index was more expensive than one
scoring a high value! That is the origin of the API gravity. It was introduced when there
was reliance on straight-run gasoline, that is, distillate having a sufficiently high octane
rating to be used in gasoline engines. As will become abundantly clear in later parts of this
book, conversion of heavier refined products to lighter materials suitable for use in spark
10
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Preambulary discussion
ignition engines is now very widely carried out. One wonders therefore whether the API
gravity still has its original significance. Even so its use continues to be prevalent and there
are numerous references to API gravity in this book. The expression is:
API gravity (degrees) = (141.5/density relative to water) - 131.5
so a crude oil having a density equal to that of water (rare without being an impossibility)
would have an API gravity of 10 degrees. The density of 898 kg m-3 from the previous
paragraph corresponds to an API gravity of 26 degrees.
Returning to the figure of 82.2 million barrels per day for the daily amount refined in 2018,
that is a precise number. ‘Refining capacity’ is less so. That is because at a refinery there
are processes which interactively influence the total throughput at any one time, which is
why ‘debottlenecking’ is practised. There is a detailed example of ‘debottlenecking’ later in
the text. Moreover, when a refinery switches from one source of crude oil to another, post-
fractionation operations such as reforming and cracking might need to be adjusted, with an
effect on the capacity of the refinery. Published ‘capacities’ for particular refineries abound
in this text and care has been taken that they are up to date. Let a reader retain in his or
her mind the points made in this introductory chapter.
REFERENCES
[1] Jones J.C. ‘Drake’s 1859 oil well’ Chemistry in Australia December 2013 p. 7.
[2] https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/
pennsylvaniaoilindustry.html
[3] https://www.reuters.com/article/iea-oil-refining/oil-refining-capacity-to-grow-at-record-
pace-this-year-iea-idUSL8N1ZI28B
11
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The EU and non-EU European countries
2 THE EU AND NON-EU

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
2.1 COUNTRY-BY COUNTRY COVERAGE OF THE EU

BREXIT has not been fully implemented at the time of preparing this chapter, so the UK
will be included. The table below lists the EU countries in alphabetical order and gives
details of their refining capacities. Comments follow the table.
www.job.oticon.dk
12
Country. Details.
Schwechat Refinery (Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung

Austria. a.k.a. OMV) 176000 bbl per day [1]. Commissioned in 1960
replacing a refinery on the same site having been bombed.
The location of two of the largest oil refineries in Europe:

TOTAL Antwerp Refinery (0.36 million bbl per day) and
Belgium.
ExxonMobil Antwerp Refinery (0.33 million bbl per day). A
smaller refinery at Antwerp discussed in the main text.
LUKOIL Neftochim Refinery at Burgas 194000

Bulgaria.
bbl per day. In operation for > 50 years.
Rijeka Refinery (Industrija Nafte a.k.a. INA) 90000

Croatia. bbl per day [9]. Commissioned in 1964 [10]. Sisak
Refinery (INA) 60000 bbl per day [11].
Cyprus. No current activity. Previously oil refining at Lanarca [14].
Litvinov Refinery (Unipetrol RPA) 120000 bbl per day [16].

Czech Republic.
Kralupy Refinery (Unipetrol RPA) 80000 bbl per day [17].
Kalundborg Refinery (Equinor) 110000 bbl per day. Also

receives natural gas condensate from the Sleipner field
Denmark.
[21]. Fredericia Refinery (Shell) 68000 bbl per day. Receives
oil from the Danish sector of the North Sea [22].
Porvoo Refinery (Neste) 206000 bbl per day [23].

Finland.
Naantali Refinery (Neste) 58000 bbl per day [24].
Nine refineries in operation ranging in capacity from 0.35

million bbl per day at the TOTAL Normandy Refinery [28] to
2700 bbl per day at the Fort de France Refinery [29]. Also the
Donges Refinery [30] capacity 0.23 million bbl per day, the
Feyzin Refinery [31] capacity 0.12 million bbl per day and the
Grandpuits Refinery [32] capacity 0.10 million bbl per day, all
France.
three TOTAL refineries. Also the Port Jérôme-Gravenchon
Refinery [33] capacity 0.27 million bbl per day and the Fos-sur-Mer
Refinery [34] capacity 0.17 million bbl per day both operated by
ExxonMobil, the Berre L’Etang Refinery [35] capacity 0.1 million
bbl per day operated by LyondellBasell, and the Lavera Refinery
[36] capacity 0.21 million bbl per day operated by Ineos.
13
Country. Details.
Schwedt Refinery (Shell, Eni et al.) 240000 bbl per day [46]. Ingolstadt
Refinery (Bayernoil) 262000 bbl per day [47]. Ingolstadt Refinery
(Gunvor) 110000 bbl per day [49]. Ruhr Oil Refinery (BP et al.)
266000 bbl per day [50]. Rheinland Werk Godorf Cologne Refinery
(Shell) 190000 bbl per day [52]. Rheinland Werk Wesseling Cologne
Refinery (Shell) 160000 bbl per day. MiRO Karlsruhe Refinery (Shell,
Germany.
ExxonMobil et al.) 320000 bbl per day [55]. Burghausen Refinery
(OMV) 70000 bbl per day [56]. TOTAL Refinery Mitteldeutschland
(TOTAL) 227000 bbl per day [58]. Emsland Lingen Refinery (BP)
90000 bbl per day [62]. Elbe Mineralölwerke Hamburg-Harburg
Refinery (Nynas) 110000 bbl per day [63]. Hamburg (Holburn) Refinery
100000 bbl per day. Heide Refinery (Klesch) 85000 bbl per day [65].
Aspropyrgos Refinery (Hellenic Petroleum) 148000 bbl per day

[67]. Corinth Refinery (Motor Oil Hellas) 185000 bbl per day [72].
Greece.
Elefsina Refinery (Hellenic Petroleum) 100000 bbl per day [75].
Thessaloniki Refinery (Hellenic Petroleum) 93000 bbl per day [78].
Szazhalombatta Refinery (Magyar OLaj- és Gázipari

Hungary.
Részvénytársaság, abbreviated to MOL) 161000 bbl per day [80].
Ireland. Whitegate Refinery (Irving Oil) 75000 bbl per day [82].
Sarpom Trecate Novara Refinery (ExxonMobil et al.) 250000 bbl

per day [86],[87]. Esso Augusta Refinery (Sonatrach) 190000 bbl
per day [89]. Falconara Marittima Ancona Refinery (Anonima
Petroli Italiana) 85000 bbl per day [91]. Impianti Sud Refinery
(Lukoil et al.) 214000 bbl per day [92]. Impianti Nord Refinery
(Lukoil et al.) 160000 bbl per day [93]. Milazzo Refinery (Eni
Italy.
and Kuwait Petroleum) 200000 bbl per day. Sannazzaro de’
Burgondi Refinery (Eni) 160000 bbl per day [95]. Taranto
Refinery (Eni) 90000 bbl per day [99]. Livorno Refinery (Eni)
84000 bbl per day [100]. Iplom Busalla Refinery (Piedmont
Mineral Processing Industry) 40000 bbl per day [102]. Sarroch
Refinery, Sardegna (Saras S.p.A.) 300000 bbl per day [105].
Lithuania. Mazeikiai Refinery (PKN Orlen) 290000 bbl per day [108].
Shell Pernis Refinery (Royal Dutch Shell) 404000 bbl per day
[111]. Botlek Refinery (ExxonMobil) Rotterdam, 195000 bbl per
day [112]. BP Rotterdam Refinery (BP), 400000 bbl per day.
The Netherlands.
Gunvor Refinery Europoort (Gunvor, previously Q8) 80000 bbl
per day [113]. VPR Refinery (Vitol) 80000 bbl per day [114].
Zeeland Refinery (TOTAL and Lukoil) 149000 bbl per day [117].
Slagen Refinery (ExxonMobil) 110000 bbl per day [121].

Norway.
Mongstad Refinery (Statoil) 200000 bbl per day [122].
14
Country. Details.
Plock Refinery (PKN Orlen) 330000 bbl per day [123]. Gdansk

Refinery (Grupa LOTOS) 210000 bbl per day. Trzebinia Refinery
Poland.
(PKN Orlen) 4000 bbl per day [126]. Jedlicze Refinery (PKN Orlen)
2800 bbl per day. Glimar Refinery (Hudson Oil) 3400 bbl per day.
Porto Refinery (Galp Energia) 110000 bbl per day [127].

Portugal.
Sines Refinery (Galp Energia) 220000 bbl per day [127].
Petrobrazi Refinery Ploieşti (Petrom/OMV) 90000 bbl per day [131].

Petromidia Constanşa Refinery (Rompetrol) 100000 bbl per day
Romania.
[134]. Petrotel Lukoil Refinery Ploieşti (LUKOIL) 68000 bbl per day
[136]. Vega Ploieşti Refinery (Rompetrol) 20000 bbl per day [138].
Panşevo Refinery (Naftna Industrija Srbije) 90000 bbl per day [140].
Serbia.
Novi Sad Refinery (Naftna Industrija Srbije) 52000 bbl per day [141].
Slovnaft Bratislava Refinery (MOL), 110,000 bbl per day [144].

Slovakia.
Petrochema Dubová Refinery 3000 bbl per day [146].
Bilbao Refinery (Petronor) 22000 bbl per day [149]. Puertollano

Refinery (Repsol) 140000 bbl per day [151]. Tarragona Refinery
(Repsol) 186000 bbl per day [152]. A Coruña Refinery (Repsol)
125000 bbl per day [153]. Cartagena Refinery (Repsol) 220000 bbl
Spain.
per day [154]. Tenerife Refinery (CEPSA) 90000 bbl per day
[159]. Palos de la Frontera Refinery (CEPSA) 200000 bbl per
day [160]. Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery (CEPSA) 240000 bbl
per day. Castellon Refinery (BP), 240000 bbl per day [162].
Refineries at Lysekil and Gothenburg (both

Sweden.
Preem). Jointly 340000 bbl per day [164].
Switzerland. Cressier Refinery 68000 bbl per day [166].
England. Fawley Refinery (ExxonMobil) 330000 bbl per

day [167]. Humber Refinery (Phillips 66), 221000 bbl per
day [170]. Lindsey Oil Refinery (TOTAL) 223000 bbl per day
[171]. Stanlow Refinery (Essar Oil) 272000 bbl per day.
United Kingdom.
Scotland. Grangemouth Refinery (Petroineos)
205000 bbl per day [174].
Wales. Pembroke Refinery (Valero) 215000 bbl per day [175].
EU countries and their oil refining details.
15
The Schwechat Refinery near Vienna (first row of the table) is the only oil refinery in Austria.
It processes of the order of 0.2 million barrels of oil per day [1]. In addition to domestic
oil from the Vienna basin, Schwechat receives oil from countries including Kazakhstan and
Saudi Arabia [2]. The domestic oil accounts for about 10% of the total [3]. The refinery
produces motor fuel and also jet fuel which is pipelined to Vienna Airport.
The TOTAL Antwerp Refinery (next row) receives crude oil from the Rotterdam-Antwerp
Pipeline as does the ExxonMobil Antwerp Refinery [4]. A discussion of Antwerp is a suitable
point at which to discuss the Nelson complexity index [5]. Introduced in the early 1960s,
this index is a measure of the importance at a particular refinery of processes additional to
fractionation. A refinery engaged in fractionation only would have a complexity index of
1.0. In the calculation of Nelson complexity index, whatever increment is set for a particular
operation is multiplied by the proportion of the fractionation product (distillate + residue)
which undergoes the operation. A simple, pedagogic calculation will help reinforce this in
a reader’s mind and this is in the boxed area below.
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Atmospheric distillation sets a baseline Nelson complexity index of 1.0.

Consider a hydroskimming refinery, that is, one at which the only operations
are atmospheric distillation and catalytic cracking of naphtha, where 10% of the
distillate experiences catalytic reforming. Using an increment of 5 for the catalytic
reforming, the Nelson complexity index of this hypothetical refinery would be:
1.0 + (0.10 × 5) = 1.5
Now imagine that, perhaps because of use of a particularly light crude, 20% of the
distilled material was suitable for reforming. The Nelson complexity would then be:
1.0 + (0.20 × 5) = 2.0
For a more advanced refinery like TOTAL Antwerp, such devices as desulphurisers and
crackers have their ‘increments’. A value of about 15 represents a refinery heavily capitalised
with such processes so as to obtain a high degree of conversion (‘deep conversion’). The
Nelson complexity index will vary as crudes of different API gravity are received. There
is a calculation similar to this one in Chapter 12 when Societe Africaine de Raffinage in
Senegal is considered.
The TOTAL and Exxon refineries at Antwerp are both complexes with capability for a
miscellany of post-distillation operations, some of them state-of-the-art. Also at Antwerp
is a 0.1 million barrels per day refinery, once operated by Petroplus and now by Gunvor,
which receives high-sulphur crudes from Russia [6]. It is expected to operate at a Nelson
complexity of 4.5 [6]. (See also the discussion in the next chapter of the Skikda Refinery
in Algeria.) The Nelson complexity index is linked to equivalent distillation capacity (EDC,
units barrels per day), and this is discussed for particular refineries at later stages of the book.
We are informed [7] and [8] that input to the Neftochim Refinery in Bulgaria is 9.5 million
tonnes of crude oil per year. One can use the ‘7 bbl per metric tonne rule’ (see Chapter 1)
to convert that to about 0.2 million barrels per day, totally consistently with the figure
given in the table. The crude oil received by the refinery is entirely imported and some of
the refined products are exported, notably to the USA. Both of the refineries in Croatia
(next row of the table) are fairly small, >100000 barrels per day. Their capabilities beyond
fractionation include desulphurisation and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), and the Nelson
complexity index is 5.8. That at the Sisak Refinery is 6.1 [12], and it is expected to rise to
9.5 when proposed expansion is carried out [13]. Each of the refineries receives imported
as well as domestic crude oil. When oil refining there ceased, Lanarca in Cyprus (next row)
became the site of a strategic petroleum reserve [15]. This is shown in Plate 2.1 below.
17
Plate 2.1 Strategic petroleum reserve at Lanarca, Cyprus, formerly the location of a refinery.
Image taken from [15].
The Litvinov Refinery in the Czech Republic (next row of the table) was originally the scene
of liquid fuel production from lignite during the Second World War [16,18]. Conventional
refining began there in 1945. At the Kralupy Refinery, where processing includes FCC,
desulphurisation and reforming, the Nelson complexity index is reported as 7.5 [19]. FCC
was introduced at the Kralupy in 2001. When in September 2014 there was leakage of
hydrocarbon from the FCC unit, the entire refinery shut down for about a week [20].
Production was not seen as being viable without the FCC unit.
With reference to the comment in the next row of the table that the Kalundborg Refinery in
Denmark receives, in addition to crude oil, natural gas condensate from the Sleipner field, it
should be noted that Sleipner is in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea not the Danish.
Condensate refining is of course over a narrower temperature range than crude oil refining,
and there is no heavy residue. The Frederecia Refinery, though now receiving North Sea
oil as reported in the table, predates North Sea oil production having been operating since
the mid 1960s when it received only imported oil. Alphabetically Estonia, an EU member
since 2014, would have belonged in the next row of the table. This country is unique in
its reliance on domestic oil from shale (kerogen), and does not refine conventional oil.
At the Porvoo Refinery in Finland (next row of the table) there are 40 units for processing
beyond fractionation, and the fairly high Nelson complexity index of 12.1 is consistent with
18
that [25]. The Porvoo Refinery has been operating for a little over 50 years and receives both
North Sea and Russian oil [26]. The latter is Russian Export Blend (REB). Four million
barrels per day of REB – two percent of the total world production – are produced. It has
an API gravity of 32 degrees [27], signifying a density of 865 kg m-3. Some of it finds its
way to North American markets. The Naantali Refinery also receives Russian crude [24]
though of lower API gravity than REB.
Moving on to France (next row of the table), TOTAL’s Normandy Refinery has about the
same capacity as its Antwerp Refinery (second row of the table). The Fort de France Refinery
was set up 50 years ago to supply oil to French-speaking countries in the Caribbean and
in South America [37], notably French Guiana. EU sulphur specifications for liquid fuels
have become more and more stringent, and this has resulted in export of refined product
from TOTAL’s Donges Refinery which did not meet the specifications. This will change
in the near future when desulphurisation sufficient to meet EU requirements is installed
at Donges [38]. The Feyzin Refinery entered use in 1964. In early 1966 there was a fire
there which claimed eighteen lives [39]. The fire began in a spherical liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG) vessel. The Granpuits Refinery supplies a large fraction of the automotive fuel
used in Paris. In late 2018 there was major disruption to several of TOTAL’s refineries in
France because of industrial action [40]. There is white oil production at the ExxonMobil
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19
Port Jerome-Gravenchon Refinery [41]. White oils are used in the manufacture of products
including pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Marcol™ and PrimolTM are trade names for white
oil produced by ExxonMobil [42] and they are food grade. Other refiners including TOTAL
produce white oils. At the Fos-sur-Mer Refinery industrial action in 2016 was accompanied
by a barricading of the entrance as shown in Plate 2.2 below.
Plate 2.2. Industrial action at the ExxonMobil Fos-sur-Mer Refinery in May 2016.
Image taken from: www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3604632/People-fighting-pumps-Tourists-
stranded-France-country-hit-fuel-strike-s-led-violence-forecourts.html
At Berre L’Etang there were two simultaneous tank fires in 2015 [43], one in a tank of
gasoline and the other in a tank of naphtha. The latter is of higher boiling range than the
former and therefore of higher reactivity: hydrocarbon reactivity increases with carbon chain
length. The higher reactivity might have been a factor in the observation [43] that the
naphtha fire took much longer to bring under control than the gasoline one did. Refined
fuel from Lavera, which is on the Mediterranean coast, goes by pipeline to markets in
France, Switzerland and southern Germany [44]. The refinery and the crude oil terminal at
the nearby Port of Marseilles are part of the ‘Mediterranean crude oil trading basin’ [45].
Refineries in Germany are listed in the next row of the table. The Schwedt Refinery in
Brandenburg has many processes additional to fractionation and the correspondingly quite
high Nelson complexity index of 9.1 [46]. Most of its crude oil is from Russia, and is
received via the Druzhba Pipeline. Oil entering this pipeline is from diverse sources including
20
the Caspian Sea. The oil is blended to REB specifications (see the discussion of the Porvoo
Refinery). At the Bayernoil Refinery at Ingolstadt in Bavaria there was an explosion in
a fractionation tower in September 2018 [48]. There were eight non-fatal injuries and
structural damage indicative of an overpressure [48]. The refinery at Ingolstadt operated by
Gunvor receives via the Trans Alpine Pipeline crude oil, offloaded at the port of Trieste in
Italy. The nearest coastline to Ingolstadt is the English Channel about 600 miles away, so
refined products have to be taken to the markets by road or rail tanker. Most is supplied
locally in Bavaria, though some finds its way to Austria. The Ruhr Oil Refinery is close to
the German-Dutch border. This enables it to receive crude oil from the Rotterdam-Rhine
Pipeline (Rotterdam Rijn Pijpleiding) [51].
Rheinland (anglicised form ‘Rhineland’) Werk Godorf Cologne Refinery and Rheinland
Werk Wesseling Cologne Refinery can be considered jointly having merged in 2002 [53],
and on that basis they constitute the largest refinery in Germany. The refinery receives oil
by pipeline from Rotterdam, but some of its products are taken away by inland tanker
vessels on the Rhine. Low water levels can preclude the loading of inland tankers to their
full capacity as has recently happened on the Rhine [54], with the knock-on effects of that
on distribution and supply. Moving on to the MiRO (Mineraloel Raffinerie Oberrhein
GmbH) Karlsruhe Refinery, this receives crude by pipeline from Marseilles and from Trieste,
venues having featured previously in this chapter in the discussion of Lavera and Ingolstadt
respectively. Karlsruhe is inland, so ocean shipment of refined products does not take place.
Some of the products from this refinery (about 40%) are taken to inland vessels on the
Rhine for delivery, so the MiRO refinery has also been affected by the recent low water levels
[56]. The Burghausen Refinery, like the Gunvor Refinery at Ingolstadt, receives oil from
the Trans Alpine Pipeline. Commonality in crude oil source across the refineries is clear,
and this aids one in understanding the term ‘Mediterranean crude oil trading basin’. The
refinery supplies jet fuel by pipeline to Munich airport, and will soon be making butadiene
for uses including the manufacture of synthetic rubber [56]. The manufacture of synthetic
rubber from butadiene originated in Germany with IG Farben [57]. The TOTAL Refinery
Mitteldeutschland is in Leuna. It has recently been producing 70000 tonnes per year (about
1300 barrels per day) of benzene [59] and this is conveyed, for use as a chemical feedstock,
by pipeline. A further proposed activity is the production of methanol by gasification of the
heavy residue [60]. There will be the disadvantage that methanol made in this way is not
carbon neutral, but that is also true of the huge amount of methanol made from natural
gas e.g. by Methanex [61].
The Emsland Lingen Refinery, which is in Lower Saxony, receives imported crude oil from
a pipeline operated by Nord-West Oelleitung GmbH (NWO) [62]. It also receives some
domestic oil and some from Schoonebeek oilfield across the Dutch border, an oilfield brought
back into production after decommissioning by means of enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
21
methods. The Elbe Mineralölwerke Hamburg-Harburg Refinery was acquired by Nynas from
Shell in 2019. Nynas are concerned not with such things as automotive fuels, jet fuels and
marine fuels but with what they describe as ‘specialist oils’ [64]. Nynex produces a wide
range of these and they include transformer oils, refrigeration fluids, heat exchanger fluids,
lubricants and feedstock for chemical conversion, e.g. to synthetic rubber. These require
crude petroleum products for their manufacture, and it is Nynas’ policy to obtain some
of these from self-owned refineries. The Elbe Mineralölwerke Hamburg-Harburg Refinery
is one such. The others are at Nynäshamn in Sweden, at Gothenburg in Sweden and at
Eastham in England (jointly with Shell). The raison d’etre of the Elbe Mineralölwerke
Hamburg-Harburg Refinery changed, after transfer from Shell to Nynas, from general-
purpose refining to make conventional fuel products to supplying a manufacturer of widely
varying organic substances. Heide Refinery supplies Hamburg airport with jet fuel [66]. Like
the Rhine, the River Elbe is suitable for oil tankers and some of the products from Heide
are transported in this way. The Mobil Refinery in Woerth, Germany closed in 1995, and
much later Germany’s loss became India’s gain. The mothballed distillation columns went
to the Cuddalore Refinery in Tamil Nadu, which features in Chapter 6.
The next row of the table is concerned with refineries in Greece. The Aspropyrgos Refinery,
which supplies Athens International Airport, is reported as having a Nelson complexity
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22
index of 10.6 [67]. It is also reported as being state-of-the-art in FCC [68]. FCC processes
have a significant NOx release [69]. The NOx is formed in the regenerator part of the FCC
unit, that is, where the catalyst having been deactivated by coke is regenerated by burning
the coke for return to the FCC reactor. Typically half the NOx emissions from a refinery
are due to this regeneration process [70]. At the Aspropyrgos Refinery a Denox additive is
used in the regenerator and the result is NOx emission 65% lower than in the absence of
the additive [71]. This was motivated by the need for compliance with the EU Industrial
Emissions Directive. The alternative to NOx control in FCC would have had to be a NOx
reduction in another refinery operation, possibly by use of low-NOx burners.
The Corinth Refinery is operated by Hellas. Most of the motor fuel from it goes to Shell
Hellas retails outlets. These result from the acquisition in 2010 of Shell’s downstream
operations in Greece by Hellas [73], [74]. Plate 2.3 below shows such an outlet on the
island of Syros.
Plate 2.3 Image of the Shell Hellas filling station on Syros. The Greek words on the display mean ‘Best
performance’.
Image taken from: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=3252ACD3210A4E399201EAC868
F3972ACB9C7920&thid=OIP.mvVdbWM5Q7l71tRd5dQeSgHaE8&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgreece.
terrabook.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F7%2FDSC_0633-web_F5720.jpg&exph=428&expw=640&q=shel
l+hellas+gas+station&selectedindex=3&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,6&ccid=mvVdbWM5&sim
id=608011039541495682
23
The Elefsina Refinery, like the Aspropyrgos Refinery, is owned by Hellenic Petroleum. At
Elefsina there is gasification of the petroleum coke, a process increasing in importance
widely and sometimes directed at chemicals formation including methanol and ammonia
[76]. At Elefsina the gasification product of the petroleum coke is used as a fuel gas, partly
in power generation for the refinery [77]. There is a return to this practice in Chapter 8
when the Toa Oil Keihin Refinery in Japan is described. Also owned by Hellenic Petroleum
is the Thessaloniki Refinery. Hellenic Petroleum obtains crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Libya (all OPEC countries) and Russia. The aggregate Nelson complexity index for the
three refineries in Greece operated by Hellenic is 9.6 [79].
At the Szazhalombatta Refinery, a.k.a. the MOL Danube Refinery, has been in operation
for over 50 years so straddles in time pre-communist Hungary and post-communist
Hungary. Its owners MOL also have a significant holding in the Rijeka Refinery in Croatia,
discussed above. The Rhine and Elbe have featured previously as rivers providing a means
of conveying refined product. At the Hungarian refinery being described the Danube serves
its turn, and again low water levels can make for difficulty [81]. The Whitegate Refinery
in Ireland (next row of the table) obtains crudes from the North Sea and from Africa. The
refinery can receive vessels of displacement up to 100000 tonnes [83], which is the within
the displacement range for tankers of the Aframax type [84]. We are informed [85] that in
January 2018 the Aframax tanker Thornbury departed Sullom Voe in Shetland with a cargo
of 0.6 million barrels of crude oil destined for Whitegate. The Thornbury also carries fuel
to the refinery at Stanlow in the north of England, to be discussed later in this chapter.
In so doing it uses the oil terminal at Tranmere on Merseyside. It is also a frequent visitor
to the Port of Rotterdam. The significance of the smallness of the Whitegate Refinery is
discussed close to the end of the chapter.
It is clear from the next row in the table, appertaining to Italy, that there are several quite
large refineries in that country. Crude oil for refining at the Sarpom Trecate Novara Refinery is
conveyed by tanker to a terminal at Vado Ligure where there is storage capacity for > 1 million
barrels of oil [88]. The port at Vado Ligure can take ships up to 35000 tonnes deadweight,
a figure corresponding to a payload of about a quarter of a million barrels. Such amounts
are carried by a ‘general-purpose’ or ‘coastal’ oil tanker [84]. From the terminal the crude
oil is transferred by pipeline to the refinery. The Esso Augusta Refinery is in Sicily and
passed from ExxonMobil to Sonatrach in 2018 [90] but is still referred to by the Esso name.
Sahara blend, domestic to Algeria, will be taken to the Augusta Refinery and the products
returned to Algeria and distributed locally, not exported further. Falconara Marittima Ancona
Refinery is on the Adriatic coast. It receives crude oil from tankers up to about 400000
tonnes, which is in the VLCC (very large crude carrier) range [84].
24
Impianti Sud and Impianti Nord jointly constitute the Priolo Gargallo Isab Refinery, which
has a Nelson complexity index of 9.3. The Milazzo Refinery in Sicily can receive crude oil
from tankers of the ULCC (ultra large crude carrier) type, which can hold in excess of a
million barrels. There was a major fire at this refinery in September 2014, which occurred
in a tank of gasoline [94]. The Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi Refinery is near Milan. It aims to
produce a maximum of light products by suitable choice of crudes and by conversion of
heavier products into lighter ones. This has earned the refinery the soubriquet ‘The white
refinery’ [96]. There was a fire at this refinery in December 2016 [97] (see below). There
were no deaths or injuries. There had been two fires at this refinery in July of the same year.
Plate 2.4. Fire at the Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery on 1st December 2016.
Image taken from: https://www.sott.net/article/335410-Huge-fire-engulfs-one-of-Italys-biggest-oil-refineries
Consistently with its ‘white refinery’ image, the Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery employs
Eni Slurry Technology whereby heavy residual liquid and petroleum coke are converted to
the equivalent of light distillates [98]. This uses hydrogen and a molybdenum catalyst. The
process was initially used on a demonstration scale (1250 barrels per day) at Eni’s Taranto
Refinery and success there was followed by implementation at the Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi
refinery. The Livorno Refinery in Tuscany is the only Eni refinery which produces lubricants
[101]. This is of course in addition to its fuel output. Livorno is a port town, and vessels
bringing crude oil for the Eni refinery there include the Hermione [102]. Its deadweight is
74000 tonnes signifying a payload of around half a million barrels meaning that the vessel
is of the Suez-Max type [84]. Plate 2.5 below shows the Hermione in port at Livorno.
25
Plate 2.5 Oil tanker Hermione in the Port of Livorno.

Image taken from: https://www.shipspottersteve.com/crude-oil-tankers.html
The Busalla Refinery distributes its products by road, rail and pipeline [103]. The refinery
receives crude oil by pipeline from the Multedo oil terminal. In April 2016 there was leakage
of crude oil from this pipeline [104].
The Sarroch Refinery is on the Island of Sardinia. At approaching a third of a million barrels
per day, it has a claim to being the largest refinery in the Mediterranean region. The refinery
is about 12 miles from Cagliari, which is a busy port. As would be expected of a refinery of
the size, it has FCC. In FCC, a process which has featured several times previously in this
book, the catalyst particles are typically up to 100 µm in diameter. They become entrained
in the exit gas from the reactor in which they perform their catalytic role and are taken
to a catalyst regenerator where they are heated to oxidise carbon having deposited during
cracking as noted above. 535oC would be a typical temperature for FCC. Downstream of
the regenerator there is removal by electrostatic precipitation of any remaining particles.
Exit gas from that will be at a temperature quite high enough for use in a turbine to create
mechanical power, and that is practised at Sarroch as it is at many refineries especially larger
ones. Uses to which the power can be put include compressors. Sarroch refinery is planning
to become a supplier of bunker fuel [106], indicating that major amounts of residuals are
sold on as such.
26
Like Estonia, Latvia has to be left out of the table above because it does not currently refine
oil. This is likely to change in the 2020s [107]. With reference to the Mazeikiai Refinery in
Lithuania (next row of the table), PKN Orlen are a Polish concern, and their operations in
Lithuania were previously carried out by Mazeikiu Nafta [109]. Mazeikiai Refinery receives
most of its crude oil from the Butinge oil terminal, itself an initiative of PKN Orlen when
it took over the refinery [110]. This oil terminal can receive from tankers of deadweight
up to 80000 tonnes.
Luxembourg and Malta, which would otherwise have featured in the next two rows of the
table, do not have oil refineries. Eni haver a major presence in Luxembourg for marketing.
Next in the alphabetical sequence then is the Netherlands, which is a major oil refining
country. The Shell Pernis Refinery is the largest refinery in Europe. At the Botlek (ExxonMobil)
Refinery oil is received by pipeline from tank farms at Maasvlakte and Europoort which
are on reclaimed land. All of the BP filling stations in the Netherlands are supplied by the
BP Rotterdam Refinery, and some refined products are exported to places including the US
and the UK. Luxembourg (see above) also receives fuel from this refinery. Gunvor Refinery
Europoort can receive oil from Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). Gunvor refineries at
Antwerp, Ingolstadt and Rotterdam have all featured in this section of the book. At its
commencement of operations in 1993 the VPR Refinery was for natural gas condensate
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only; it was a ‘condensate splitter’, and was later extended to petroleum products. For this
to happen in reverse – for an obsolescent oil refinery to become a condensate splitter – is
much more common, and the best known example is probably the Marcus Hook Refinery
in Philadelphia [115]. In fact the VPR refinery in the Netherlands still receives natural gas
condensate in addition to light crudes. A point relevant to this is that the density ranges
of condensate and light crude oil overlap [116]. There is a return to this point when the
Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait is discussed.
The Zeeland Refinery is the only one of the Dutch refineries in the table that is not located
at the Port of Rotterdam although it is not very far away, about 40 miles from Rotterdam,
and it receives crude oil from the Port of Rotterdam. A recent study has indicated that
the refineries of Holland could furnish 8.5 to 17.5 petajoules (PJ) annually of heat for use
elsewhere [118]. That signifies an energy supply rate of up to 550 MW of heat. This will
shortly happen at Pernis, where the heat will be supplied to households [119]. It has already
happened at Zeeland [120]. Some of the heat from there goes to a nuclear waste processing
facility and some goes to a local waste management facility, enabling both to obtain CO2
reductions. The financial benefit to the recipients of the heat is also clear: natural gas in a
quantity sufficient to raise 17.5 PJ would cost of the order of $US 45 million. The same
amount of heat from fuel oil would cost about half an order of magnitude more.
The Slagen Refinery in Norway (next row of the table) was in operation from 1961, exactly
a decade before the first oil production in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea which
was at Ekofisk. (Ekofisk is only now being decommissioned.) Refining at Mongstad began
in 1975. Moving on to Poland, we first note that there was oil refining in Jasło (close to
Jedlicze) in the mid 19th Century [124]. It was motivated by a desire to produce illuminating
oil which was cheaper than whale oil. Lubricants were also produced at Jasło. At that time
animal fat (tallow) was used in the lubrication of machinery so the lubricant at Jasło was
a novel product. Poland produces very little oil, and the viability of a refinery depends on
supply. For that reason PKN Orlen have a long-term agreement with Rosneft for supply of
crude oil to the refinery in Plock. Plock has visbreaking, by which is meant thermal cracking
of heavier material to reduce the viscosity. Sometimes ‘visbreaking’ is applied to heavy crude
oils, to reduce their viscosity sufficiently for them to be flowed in a pipeline. Poland has
only a short coastline, and that is with the Baltic Sea. The B3 field in the Polish Economic
Zone of the Baltic Sea has been producing oil since the early 1990s, and that goes to the
Gdansk Refinery [125] which also receives Russian crude. The other Polish oil refineries in
the table, Trzebinia, Jedlicze and Glimar, are all very small and all date back > 100 years.
28
The two refineries in Portugal (next row of the table) can be considered jointly. Portugal
produces no crude oil. Oil import for refining is via the Port of Sines and the Port of
Leixões. Portugal exports refined petroleum products, that accounting for about 4% of
Portugal’s revenue from exports. Unlike the other ‘Iberian country’ which is Spain, Portugal
has its coastline not with the Mediterranean but with the Atlantic. That is propitious for
its refining industry.
Like the coverage of Poland, that of Romania (next row of the table) will begin with a point
of historical interest. At Ploiesti in Romania oil refining commenced in 1857 [128] and
the quantity was 50 barrels (about 7 tonnes) per day. Heat for the refining was obtained
by burning wood fuel. The oil refined at Ploiesti was from a local field and the desired
product was illuminating oil. In 1857 Bucharest became the first city in the world to have
public buildings and spaces illuminated by crude oil distillate. In countries where kerosene
is still used in lighting, performances of up to 0.2 lumens per watt of energy released by
the kerosene can be realised [129]. 7 tonnes per day of crude oil will yield about 2 tonnes
per day of illuminating oil and if that is burned over a period of darkness of say 8 hours
the rate of energy release is:
2 × 103 kg × 43 × 106 J kg-1/(8 × 3600 s) = 3 MW 600000 lumens
A modern 60 W light bulb is capable of about 11 lumens per watt of electrical energy [130],
so 600000 lumens would require 600000/(60 × 11) = 900 such bulbs. No more than the
roughest of comparisons is possible, but the calculated result that equivalent lighting could
in the 21st century be achieved by about a thousand 60 W bulbs is intuitively sensible.
There is currently oil refining at Ploiesti. At the Petrobrazi Refinery in Ploiesti (see plate
2.6) there has been refining since 1943. At many of the refineries featuring in this book
there is breakdown of heavier components to give gasoline equivalents and this is referred
to as ‘residuum conversion’. The building up (oligormerisation) of lighter material to give a
product in the boiling range of gasoline is less common. It is nevertheless taking place at the
Petrobrazi Refinery [132]. The feedstock is alkenes, either from the LPG from fractionation
or from FCC. The daily yield of gasoline [133] is about 35000 barrels (1500000 US gallons).
29
Plate 2.6. Petrobrazi Refinery in Ploieşti, Romania.


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DQGQDXWLFDOVFLHQFHV%HKLQGDOOWKDW&KDOPHUVDFFRPSOLVKHVWKHDLPSHUVLVWV
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30
The Petromidia Constanţa Refinery is at the Black Sea coast [135]. It receives crude oil
by tanker via the terminal at Midia, which can receive tankers of the Suzmax type [84].
The refined products are sold not only in Romania but also in Bulgaria, Georgia and the
Republic of Moldova. A Russian refinery having a Black Sea coast location is described
in Chapter 6. The Petrotel Lukoil Refinery receives domestic oil as well as oil imported
from Russia by tanker. It receives electricity from a wholly owned power plant which uses
petroleum coke as fuel in a circulating fluidised bed [137]. At the scene of this conventional
electricity generation there is also generation using photovoltaic cells. At the Vega Ploieşti
Refinery there is production of ‘Eurobitumen’ [139] for use in road construction. This
involves addition of a polymer to bitumen to adjust properties including the elasticity.
Moving on to Serbia (next row of the table), Naftna Industrija Srbije operate two refineries.
In a ‘bottom-of-the-barrel’ process, the refinery at Pančevo has extended the quantity of
middle distillate and has produced petroleum coke, something it previously imported from
Bulgaria [142]. The Novi Sad Refinery was bombed by NATO in 1999. Since 2016 it
has been used to make oils for the manufacture of products including lubricants, like the
refineries at Nynäshamn and Gothenburg in Sweden (see above). The similarity between
these Swedish refineries and the Novi Sad refinery in its post 2016 role is emphasised
in [143]. The Slovnaft Bratislava Refinery (next row of the table) receives crude from the
Druzhba pipeline. This is one of the world’s longest pipelines, across its several branches
having a length of 5550 km. It carries oil from the Caspian Sea as well as from Siberia and
the Urals [145]. The low production at the Dubová Oil Refinery is due partly to reliance
on rail transportation of crude. There are plans for this also to receive from the Druzhba
pipeline [147] in which case expansion of the refinery will be possible. Slovenia is another
absentee from the table. Up to 2000, the Lendava Refinery there produced about 40000
barrels per day [148].
Spain (next row) is well capitalised with refineries, and major amounts of refined product
are exported. Petronor, who operate the Bilbao Refinery, are partly owned by Repsol who are
themselves headquartered in Madrid. Interestingly, what is believed to be the first European
import of crude oil from Canadian tar sands was received at Bilbao in 2014 in a quantity
of just over half a million barrels [150]. It was for trying out the refinery with crude oil
from tar sands. Puertollano Refinery, Tarragona Refinery, A Coruña Refinery and Cartagena
Refinery are all owned by Repsol. Puertollano Refinery has been in operation for over 50
years. In 2003 there was an explosion there which claimed three lives [155]. A notable
activity at Tarragona is propane dehydrogenation to make propene, in an annual quantity
of 350000 tonnes. It goes to a polypropylene plant at Tarragona [156]. A Coruña Refinery
was the scene of a fire in 2012 [157]. The high production rate at the Cartagena Refinery
was made possible by expansions about a decade ago [158]. Accompanying the increase in
fractionation capacity was installation of a number of features previously absent, including
31
a delayed coker by which is meant cracking with multiple reactor passes. This breaks down
heavy material to give middle distillates, similarly to the ‘bottom-of-the-barrel’ process at
Pančevo refinery described above. (See also the discussion of the Lyondell Houston Refinery
in TX.) The Tenerife Refinery has been in operation since 1930. At that time national policy
precluded oil refining in mainland Spain. It is operated by CEPSA as is the Palos de la
Frontera Refinery. This, as well as producing fuels, supplies feedstock for the manufacture
at a nearby plant of chemicals including phenol and acetone.
A traveller from Spain to Gibraltar is required to go through passport control at La Linea

San Roque. The Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery, the largest refinery in the Iberian Peninsula,
is on the shore of the Bay of Gibraltar. As might be expected from its location, it supplies
bunker fuel to vessels as Sorrach Refinery does. The Detal-Plus™ process was recently
introduced at the Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery [161]. This is used in the production of
linear (unbranched) alkylbenzenes for detergent manufacture. There is a return to this theme
when the Visakhapatnam Refinery in India is described. Products of the Gibraltar-San Roque
Refinery include petroleum coke, which has featured in discussions of other refineries. One
can conceive an expanded market for petroleum coke in the 2020s and beyond. For example,
vehicles using a fuel cell are increasing in number and in importance, and electrodes are
commonly metal on a carbon support [163].
Moving on to Sweden, additionally to the specialist activity at Gothenburg and Nynäshamn

discussed above there is the conventional activity outlined in the table. The refineries at
Lysekil and Gothenburg each receive crude oil by tanker. Lysekil accepts residual material
from other refineries for upgrading at its vacuum distillation unit [165]. Vacuum distillation
enables the material resisting evaporation at atmospheric pressure (‘bottoms’) to be distilled
without cracking them. Their evaporation at atmospheric pressure might require a temperature
high enough for cracking. The Cressier Refinery (next row) is the only oil refinery in
Switzerland. It receives crude oil from a shipping terminal at Fos-sur-Mer in France where,
as noted above, there is an Exxon-Mobil Refinery. Conveyance of the oil from the terminal
to the Cressier Refinery is by the Southern European Pipeline, which supplies to France,
Switzerland and Germany.
Note that all of the refineries in the UK (next row) are > 200000 barrels per day. The first
oil refining there was at Skewen in Glamorganshire in circa 1920. Prior to that gasoline was
imported in cans from Europe. The Fawley refinery near Southampton receives oil from the
North Sea and from the Middle East [168]. The terminal for crude oil tankers delivering to
the refinery can take tankers of up to 350000 tonnes deadweight, that is, into VLCC range
[169]. There was a refinery at the site almost 100 years ago. The Humber Refinery receives
most of its crude oil from the North Sea. It is a major producer of petroleum coke, which
finds application as a metallurgical reductant. In 2001 there was a major fire at the refinery
32
in which 170000 tonnes of LPG burnt. A heater at an adjacent unit provided an ignition
source for the leaked hydrocarbon [170]. The Lindsey Oil Refinery, like the Humber Refinery
situated in the English County of Lincolnshire, is linked by pipeline to Buncefield where
in 2005 the ‘largest fire in peacetime Europe’ [172] occurred. Crude oil for the refinery is
taken by tanker to Immingham and from there to the refinery by pipeline [173]. The oil
terminal at Immingham can take vessels of only up to 100000 tonnes deadweight, which is
in the Suezmax range [84]. Grangemouth is the only oil refinery in Scotland. It long predates
North Sea oil, and was once used to refine shale oil originating at nearby Pumpherston. It
later received conventional oil from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which was of course
the forerunner to BP. More recently it has received crude oil by pipeline from the Forties
field in the UK sector of the North Sea. Chevron were the owner of the Pembroke Refinery
when an explosion causing four deaths occurred there in 2011 [176]. More recently it has
been owned by Valero, whose US refineries feature later in the book.
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33
2.2 FURTHER COMMENTS ON EU COUNTRIES

The capacities of all of the refineries in the table add up to about 15 million barrels per
day. There will therefore be about a million barrels of refinery processing gain which is fairly
constant across a wide range of crudes at ~7%. Ireland is not of course leaving the EU when
the UK does. Member states are required to have oil in reserve for contingencies and this
is part of the oil stock of the EU [177]. Ireland has 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil in its
contingency reserve [178]. About two thirds of it is stored in Ireland and the rest in the
UK, Holland, Denmark and Spain, all EU countries until BREXIT comes into effect [179].
This is consistent with the idea of pooling the oil from the respective countries to form an
EU reserve, and the amount in the UK is about 200000 tonnes (1.4 million barrels) which
is stored at refineries. As things stand, after BREXIT part of the EU oil stock will be in a
non-EU country, an untenable situation. The oil will have to be removed to one or more EU
countries and it has been suggested it might in fact be taken to France [179]. Alternatively
‘crude swaps’ like those of Caspian oil and Iranian oil [180] might be devised. The only
refinery in Ireland (Whitegate, see above) is a small one. The part of the oil reserve currently
kept in Ireland is at ports. It is noted above that Whitegate receives crude oil from the
UK Sector of the North Sea. That will soon cease to be trade between two EU countries.
More general points on the effects of BREXIT on oil refining in the UK have been made in
a ‘position paper’ by the UK Petroleum Industry Association [181]. At present the UK like
other EU countries has to register chemical substances with REACH: Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals [182]. Petroleum substances originating in the
UK subject to REACH occur in amounts of 971 million tonnes annually. This converts to
about 18 million barrels per day, and one should note the approximate correspondence of
this to the figure in the previous paragraph obtained by summing the refinery capacities.
As an example of REACH we consider its application to Brent crude oil which, of course,
goes to refineries. Compliance with REACH is confirmed by issue of a certificate: that for
Brent crude can be downloaded from [183]. REACH has its basis in the EU, yet in [181]
it is recommended that after BREXIT it should continue to apply to petroleum products
in the UK. Essar have expressed the view that their refinery at Stanlow in Cheshire stands
to gain from BREXIT [184]. This is not so much due to BREXIT per se as to the fact
that the Great Britain Pound dropped sharply in value against the $US in the lead-up to
the final BREXIT vote in parliament, when the Essar Refinery was meeting its own costs
in GBP and selling its products in $US.
34
2.3 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN EU COUNTRIES

Such countries are listed below.
Country. Details.
Ballsh Refinery 20000 barrels per day

Albania. [185]. Fier Refinery 10000 [186]. Both
Albanian Refining & Marketing of Oil
Bosanski Brod Refinery (Zarubezneft)

Bosnia and Herzegovina.
30000 barrels per day [187].
A refinery planned for West Fjords

Iceland. (Westfjords) [189]. Target capacity
150000 barrels per day.
Skopje Oil Refinery (Hellenic Petroleum).

North Macedonia (Republic of).
50000 barrels per day [191].
Kirikkale Refinery (Türkiye Petrol Rafinerileri

A.Ş. a.k.a. Tupras). 100000 barrels per day
[192]. Izmit Refinery (Tupras). 210000 barrels
per day [192]. Batman Refinery (Tupras).
Turkey.
22000 barrels per day [192]. Izmir Refinery
(Tupras) 210000 barrels per day [192].
In Europe and Western Asia.
Doğu Akdeniz Petrol Refinery (Çalik Enerji)
210000 barrels per day [194]. STAR Refinery
(State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic
a.k.a. Socar) 34000 barrels per day [195].
At the time of going to press the two refineries in Albania in the first row of the table are
both out of service, and their return to service awaits investors [187]. Previously, products
of the Ballsh Refinery included Mazut 40 fuel oil as at the Komsomolsk Refinery in Russia.
At Fier heavy fuel oil and asphalt were major products, and some of the distillate becomes
solvents. At the Bosanski Brod Refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are vacuum
distillation, catalytic cracking and hydrocracking, giving it the capability to get a good
conversion from a heavy crude. In October 2018 there was an explosion at this refinery
which claimed a life [188].
The planned refinery in Iceland is limited in proposed capacity by the inhospitable coastline
close to it, which would preclude visits by large tankers. It will bring employment to the area,
where there is currently unemployment because of the dwindling fishing industry. The oil
consumption of Iceland (population 0.34 million) is only of the order of 15000 barrels per day
[190]. Iceland currently imports refined petroleum products from Norway. Obviously Iceland
will become an exporter if the planned refinery is built. At present the largest single export
35
from Iceland is aluminium. The Skopje Oil Refinery in North Macedonia is a hydroskimming
refinery with one or two extras including hydrodesulphurisation of refined products.
The Tupras Kirikkale Refinery in Turkey has capabilities including reforming and hydrocracking,
and its Nelson complexity index is 6.3 [192]. It receives crude oil at the Mediterranean
coast of Turkey via the Ceyhan-Kırıkkale pipeline, and it despatches refined products by
road tanker. The Tupras Izmit Refinery has a Nelson complexity index as high as 14.5 [192].
That is because of what is termed in [192] its ‘Residuum Upgrading Facility’. That a high
degree of residuum conversion results in a high Nelson complexity index is a point made
with emphasis throughout this book, for example in the discussion of the TOTAL Antwerp
Refinery earlier in this chapter. By contrast the Tupras Batman Refinery, which has been
in operation for over 60 years, has a Nelson complexity index of 1.8. It is avowedly not a
conversion refinery [193]. The Tupras Izmir Refinery has a Nelson complexity index of 7.7
and has a wide product range, from LPG to wax.
The Çalik Enerji Doğu Akdeniz Petrol Refinery is in Ceyhan. It receives foreign oil by tanker
and by pipeline. The Socar STAR Refinery commenced operations in 2018. It supplies motor
fuel and jet fuel, and also substances including xylene which by an established scheme are
passed along to a particular petrochemicals plant. Reformate is also produced at this refinery
(see section 11.2).
36
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38
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41
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43
[170] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/humber/
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[172] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-35063700/devastation-of-buncefield-blast-10-years-on
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[174] https://www.ineos.com/sites/grangemouth/
[175] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Pembroke.aspx
[176] https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/hse-takes-seven-years-to-bring-
pembroke-refinery-case-to-court
[177] https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/ireland/oil-consumption
[178] https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-security/eu-oil-stocks
[179] http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2018/07/16/news/republic-
to-remove-all-oil-reserves-from-the-uk-after-almost-20-years-as-part-of-its-brexit-
preparations-1382967/
[180] Jones J.C., Russell N.V. ‘Dictionary of Energy and Fuels’ Whittles Publishing,
Caithness and CRC Press, Boca Raton (2007).
[181] www.ukpia.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/fuelseurope-ukpia-brexit-
position-paper-final.pdf?sfvrsn=0
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[182] https://www.concawe.eu/reach/petroleum-substances-and-reach/
https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/registration/data-sharing
[183] https://www.shetland.gov.uk/ports/oilterminal/loading-discharging/documents/
BrentDataSheet.pdf
[184] https://www.essar.com/turnaround-stanlow-reflects-essar-oils-global-vision/
[185] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/8-albania/oil-refining/1-armo-
ballsh-oil-refinery
[186] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/8-albania/oil-refining/2-armo-
fier-oil-refinery
[187] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/bosanski-brod-refinery
[188] https://www.rferl.org/a/29534696.html
[189] http://www.savingiceland.org/2007/08/disaster-plans-for-the-westfjords/
[190] https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Iceland/oil_consumption/
[191] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/152-macedonia/oil-refining/408-
okta-skopje-oil-refinery
[192] https://www.tupras.com.tr/en/rafineries
[193] http://www.taca.com.tr/sayfalar.asp?LanguageID=2&cid=3&id=19&id2=84
[194] http://www.contractorsunlimited.co.uk/news/100728-shaw-turkey.shtml
[195] https://www.azernews.az/oil_and_gas/143525.html
45
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The OPEC countries and former OPEC countries
3 THE OPEC COUNTRIES AND

FORMER OPEC COUNTRIES
3.1 OVERVIEW
As with the previous chapter the information will be given in tabular form with comments
following.
Country. Details.
Riyadh Refinery (Saudi Aramco). Rabigh

Saudi Arabia. Refinery (Saudi Aramco/Sumitomo). Ras
Tanura Refinery (Saudi Aramco). Yanbu
Refining capacity ~ 3 million bbl per day [1]. Refinery (Saudi Aramco). Yanbu Refinery
(SAMREF). Jubail Refinery (SATORP). YASREF
Production ~ 11 million bbl per day [2]. Refinery, location Yanbu. Jazan Refinery
(Saudi Aramco). Jubail Refinery (SASREF).
Basra(h) Refinery (Iraq National Oil Company,

Iraq. INOC). Daurah Refinery (INOC). Kirkuk
Refinery (INOC). Baiji Salahuddin Refinery
Refining capacity > 1 million bbl per (INOC). Baiji North Refinery (INOC).
day. Expansion under way [19]. Khanaqin/Alwand Refinery (INOC). Samawah
Refinery (INOC). Haditha Refinery (INOC).
Production ~ 4.5 million bbl per day [20]. Muftiah Refinery (INOC). Gaiyarah Refinery
(INOC). Erbil Refinery (KAR Group).
Kuwait.
Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery (KNPC). Mina
Abdullah Refinery (KNPC), Al Zour
Refining capacity 1.4 million bbl per day [40].
Refinery, Kuwait National Petroleum
Company (KNPC, under construction).
Production 2.8 million bbl per day [41].
Iran. Abadan Refinery (NIODC). Arvand Oil

Refinery (Arvand Free Oil Refining Company).
Refining capacity 1.6 million bbl per day [46]. Arak Refinery (NIODC). Tehran Refinery
(NIODC). Isfahan Refinery (NIODC). Tabriz
Production 3.9 million bbl per day [47]. Refinery (NIODC). Shiraz Refinery (NIODC).
Lavan Refinery (NIODC). Persian Gulf Star
NIODC = National Iranian Oil Refining Oil Refinery (NIODC). Kermanshah Refinery
and Distribution Company. (NIODC). Bandar Abbas Refinery (NIODC).
Production 1.2 million bbl per day [67]. Three more refineries under
construction, with a combined capacity
Production 1.35 million bbl per day [76]. of 0.45 million barrels per day.
46
Country. Details.
Zawiya Refinery (NOC). Ra’s Lanuf Refinery

(NOC). El-Brega Refinery (NOC). Sarir
Refinery (AGOC). Tobruk Refinery (AGOC).
Libya. NOC = National Oil Corporation.
AGOC = Arabian Gulf Oil Company.
Skikda Refinery (Sonatrach, HQ in

Algiers). Adrar Refinery (CNPC,
Sonatrach). Algiers Refinery (Sonatrach).
Arzew Refinery (Sonatrach). Hassi
Messaoud Refinery (Sonatrach).
Algeria.
CNPC = China National
Petroleum Corporation.
Abu Dhabi Refinery (Abu Dhabi Oil

United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Refining Company). Fujairah Refinery
(VITOL Group, HQ in Amsterdam).
Refining capacity ~ 0.8 million
Ruwais Refinery (Abu Dhabi Oil Refining
bbl per day [89].
Company). Jebel Ali Refinery (ENOC).
ENOC = Emirates National Oil Company.
Qatar*.
Refining capacity > 0.4 million Umm Said Refinery (Qatar Petroleum). Laffan
bbl per day [97]. Refinery 1 (Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil ,
TOTAL et al.). Laffan Refinery 2 (Qatar
Production 0.6 million bbl per day [98]. Petroleum, ExxonMobil , TOTAL et al.)
* Withdrew from OPEC on 1st January 2019.
47
Country. Details.
Nigeria.
Refining capacity 0.45 million Kaduna Refinery (NNPC). Port Harcourt

bbl per day [103]. Refinery (NNPC). Warri Refinery
(NNPC). Ogbele Refinery (Niger
Production 2 million bbl per day [104]. Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd).
Two others under construction one of which,

the Dangote Refinery, will have a capacity
of 0.65 million bbl per day. Commencement
of operation in 2020 hoped for.
Equatorial Guinea.
Aspirations for a refinery in with
Refining capacity nil [114]. support from PDVSA (Venezuela) [117].
Further comments in the main text.
Production ~ 0.2 million bbl per day [115].
Gabon.
Refining capacity 12000 bbl per day [118]. Sogara Refinery. (TOTAL et al.).
Production 0.2 million bbl per day [119]
Pointe Noire Refinery (CORAF: Congolaise

de Raffinage, HQ in Brazzaville).
Republic of the Congo.
Refining capacity 21000 bbl per day [122].
Indonesia*. Plaju (Musi) Refinery (Pertamina).

Balongan Refinery (Pertamina). Dumai
Refining capacity 1.1 million bbl per day [124]. Refinery (Pertamina). Cilacap Refinery
(Pertamina). Balikpapan Refinery
Production 0.75 million bbl per day [125]. (Pertamina). Sungai Pakning Refinery
(Pertamina). Cepu Refinery (Pusdiklat
*Withdrew from OPEC in 2008. Migas Cepu). Kasim Refinery (Pertamina).
48
Country. Details.
Luanda Refinery (Sonangol and Eni).

Angola.
Refining capacity 65000 bbl per day [140].
Amuay Refinery, CRP (PDVSA).

Cardón Refinery, CRP (PDVSA). Bajo
Venezuela.
Grande Refinery, CRP (PDVSA).
Puerto La Cruz Refinery (PDVSA).
El Palito Refinery (PDVSA). San
Production 2.4 million bbl per
Roque Refinery (PDVSA).
day (2017 figure) [147].
CRP = Centro de Refinación de Paraguaná

Neither production nor refining in Venezuela
= Paraguaná Refinery Complex.
is at full capacity at the present time.
PDVSA = Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.
Ecuador.
Esmeraldas Refinery (Petroecuador).
Refining capacity 188000 bbl per day [159]. La Libertad Refinery (Petroecuador).
Shushufindi Refinery (Petroecuador).
The Riyadh Refinery, which is in the national capital, came into service in 1973 and its
current capacity is 0.12 million barrels per day [3]. Its operator Saudi Aramco has its HQ
in Dhahran. The Rabigh Refinery (0.4 million barrels per day) is a joint activity of Saudi
Aramco and the Japanese concern Sumitomo. The origins of Sumitomo can be traced to
the early 17th Century when its business was metals extraction from their ores [4]. Its
petrochemicals range is expansive, and it is reported in [5] that 18 million tonnes of refined
products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals are produced at the refinery annually.
It ought to be possible to do an approximate mass balance on this, invoking the ‘7 barrel
per metric tonne rule’ (Chapter 1).
Total annual amount of products = 20.4 million tonnes = 143 million barrels resulting
from (143/1.07) = 134 million barrels of crude oil = 0.37 million barrels daily.
The approximation that the weight of the petrochemicals is the same as that of the oil
from which they are derived is not difficult to justify. Cracking and hydrogenation involve
49
respectively loss and gain of hydrogen atoms, which have only 1/12th the mass of a carbon
atom, so the mass of the hydrocarbon before and after such treatment is not strongly
affected. Noting that the refinery capacity is 0.4 million barrels per day, the mass balance
closes at 7.5% on the low side. Before hypothesising that this is due to residues which
have not been converted to equivalents of fractions, it would be prudent to fine-tune the
‘7 barrel per metric tonne rule’ from knowledge of the densities of the particular crudes
received by the refinery. To this can be added the factors causing uncertainties in ‘capacities’
discussed in Chapter 1 as well as the issue of refinery gain. For fractionation alone this is
7%. Residuum conversion processes are chemical and the 7%, which is for the physical
process of distillation, cannot be applied to the products of that as it could be if residuum
conversion was simply the equivalent of fractionation at higher temperatures, volume being
a function of state.
The Jeddah Refinery, also a Saudi Aramco refinery, ceased operations in 2017 [6]. Its capacity
was 0.1 million barrels per day. Ras Tanura Refinery has the very large capacity of 0.55
million barrels per day and receives crude oil from the Ras Tanura oil terminal, which is the
largest such terminal in the world. Co-existence of the refinery and the terminal is noted
in [7]. The refinery has been in operation for over seventy years [8]. Its initial capacity was
60 million barrels per day. Its expansion has been made possible by the fact that it is in a
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50
sparsely populated area: the population of the city of Ras Tanura is 74000. That of Jeddah
is 3.4 millions, and that that restricts further expansion was a factor in the closure of the
refinery there described above. The Saudi Aramco Yanbu Refinery has a capacity of 0.4
million barrels per day [9]. SAMREF stands for Saudi Aramco and Mobil Yanbu Refining
Company [10]. Its refinery at Yanbu can process 0.4 million barrels per day. Jubail Refinery
also has a capacity of 0.4 million barrels per day. In 1933 Jubail was the scene of the first
exploration for oil in Saudia Arabia (which had taken that name only the previous year).
The refinery there, which commenced production as recently as 2014 [11], has a capacity
of 0.4 million barrels per day and its operator is Satorp (Saudi Aramco TOTAL Refining
and Petrochemical). The refinery takes Arabian Heavy crude, API gravity 27.4 (density 890
kg m-3) [12]. Some of its refined products are exported, including jet fuel to the UAE and
gasoline to Kuwait [13]. There is another refinery at Jubail called SASREF (Saudi Aramco
Shell Refinery) which has a capacity of 0.3 million barrels per day [14]. YASREF stands
for Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company, and its refinery in Yanbu on the Red Sea
coast has a capacity of 0.4 million barrels per day [15]. It uses Arabian Heavy crude and
is directed at transportation fuels, yielding 87000 barrels per day of diesel and 105000
barrels per day gasoline. This obviously involves breaking down the heavier material, and
~6000 tonnes per day of petroleum coke remains for domestic or international sale [16].
The Jazan Refinery is the most recent refinery in Saudi Arabia to come into service (2016)
[17]. It receives crude oil at a terminal capable of accommodating VLCCs [18]. Refined
products will be used domestically.
The presently low refining capacity of Iraq (next row of the table) is of course due to war.
The Basrah Refinery has a capacity of 0.14 million barrels per day [21]. Expansion is taking
place there [22]. The Daurah Refinery has a capacity of 0.1 million barrels per day [23]. The
oilfield at Kirkuk has been producing since the 1930s [24]. The refinery there is recent and
its initial production was set at 70000 barrels per day [25]. It will supply refined products
to the ‘semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan’. The Baiji Salahuddin Refinery was once the
largest refinery in Iraq, producing at 0.3 million barrels per day. It was taken out of service
in 2014 because of war damage, and is now back in production and performing at something
like a third of its nameplate capacity [26]. Plate 3.1 is an illustration of this refinery.
51
Plate 3.1 Baiji Refinery in Salahuddin province.

Image taken from:https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/isis-controls-80-baiji-refinery-salahuddin-province-says-
us-official/
In view of what has been said in Chapter 1, it is possibly advisable to see a nameplate
capacity as being for a particular crude.
Baiji North Refinery has a capacity of 0.15 million barrels per day [27]. The Khanaqin/
Alwand Refinery has also been a victim of war and is currently operating at 10000 barrels
per day [28]. In Khanaqin is the Naft Khana oilfield which extends over the border with
Iran where it is known as the Naft Shahr oifield (see the discussion of the Kermanshah
Refinery in Iran). The Samawah Refinery went out of operation for fourteen years after
the Gulf War, and its current production stands at 27000 barrels per day [29]. There are
proposals for a new refinery at that location with a capacity of 70000 barrels per day [30].
The Haditha Refinery in northern Iraq is also in ‘re-opened’ status [31] and produces 16000
barrels per day. The Muftiah Refinery is near Basra and produces 4500 barrels per day [32].
It receives local crude oil by pipeline from the Basra Refinery [33]. The Gaiyarah Refinery
has a capacity of 16000 barrels per day [34] and has terminals for the reception of crude
oil and the despatch of refined products. It takes oil from the Gaiyarah oilfield. This oil is
heavy (API gravity 15 degrees, density 965 kg m -3) and also sour and that is the reason for
the low production. The Erbil Refinery is in Kurdistan and is a relatively large refinery, 0.1
million barrels per day [35], and its operator is the KAR Group who are a Kurdish company.
Not surprisingly, there are a number of refineries under construction in Iraq [36]. They
include one at Port of Fao a.k.a. Al Faw Grand Port, a Persian Gulf location. This refinery
is expected to have a capacity of 0.3 million barrels per day. Refineries of half that capacity
52
are planned for Nassiriya and for Anbar province [36]. The locations are respectively on
the southern bank of the Euphrates and in western Iraq. Nassiriya will be a grass roots
refinery, that is, a newly constructed refinery and not an extension or recommissioning of an
existing one [37]. It will take crude oil from the Nassiriya Mishrif field, where production
began in 2009 [38]. The API gravity of this crude oil is 27.8 degrees. That will sometimes
be blended with crude oil from Basra. Sometimes light and heavy crudes are blended to a
target density or viscosity. Basra crude is itself fairly light, and the reason for the blending
with Nassiriya Mishrif is more likely to be extension of supply. The refinery at Anbar will
also be grass roots [39]. A refinery of capacity 0.1 million barrel per day is planned for
Mosul in Northern Iraq.
The refining capacity of Kuwait (next row) includes that of the Al Zour Refinery which, as
noted, is under construction. The Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery has a capacity of just under
half a million barrels per day [42]. Natural gas is processed there in a quantity of up to
2458 million cubic feet per day [42]. There is major production of LPG at the refinery.
There is also condensate [43]. Here condensate does not have the simple meaning that it
has say for gas from one of the condensate fields off the coast of East Anglia. There it means
hydrocarbons up to about C5 6 co-existing with the methane in non-associated natural
gas. At such a place as the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery where there are many simultaneous
operations involving crude oil and associated gas, condensate means any product conforming
in composition range and in API gravity range to condensate in the sense explained in
the previous chapter. In concluding this discussion, the Schlumberger oilfield glossary
will be drawn on. It states [44] that condensate is ‘a low-density, high-API gravity liquid
hydrocarbon phase that generally occurs in association with natural gas’, and clearly this
definition allows for other sources of condensate. (One might question whether ‘association’
is the best word here: ‘comprises the heavier components of natural gas’ might have been
better as the condensate is in the same phase as the methane in the reservoir.)
The Al Zour Refinery is a grass roots refinery and its capacity will be 0.615 million barrels
per day [45]. Start-up before the end of 2019 is now thought to be improbable. A significant
proportion of its products – 225000 barrels per day of refined product – will be used in the
thermal generation of electricity within Kuwait. It is straightforward to show that this would,
with a steam turbine or with a gas turbine, generate about 5 GW of electricity. Al Zour will
be the largest refinery in the Middle East and amongst the largest refineries in the world.
The Abadan Refinery in Iran (next row of the table) commenced operations in 1912 and was
for a period the biggest oil refinery in the world [48]. It experienced major war damage in
1980. Modernisation has recently been taking place at the refinery, including replacement of
a distillation column which was installed over 70 years ago [49]. The Arvand Oil Refinery
is situated in the Arvand Free Zone. It has a capacity of 0.12 million barrels per day and
53
receives heavy (low API gravity) crude oil. The Arak Refinery has a capacity of 0.25 million
barrels per day [50] and receives crude oil from the Ahwaz field in south west Iran. This is
sometimes blended with other oils of Iranian origin for refining. At the Teheran Refinery
(where there was a fatal fire in 2017 [51]), the capacity is 0.2 million barrels per day [52].
It too receives crude oil from Ahwaz, as well as from the Marun and Shadegan oilfields in
Iran. It receives some crude oil from the Former Soviet Union.
The ‘Caspian Littoral States oil swap’ was alluded to briefly in section 2.2 of this book.
Crude oil so swapped has been received at Iranian refineries including Teheran. The Caspian
Littoral States are Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. They all have a
coast with the Caspian Sea as shown in the map below.
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54
Map showing the Caspian Littoral States.

Image taken from https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/415944/Iran-restarts-oil-swaps-with-Caspian-
states-after-7-year-hiatus
Under the ‘swap’ arrangement, Iran receives oil from the Caspian region at its port of Neka
on its Caspian coast. These go to Iranian refineries as noted, and in return an equivalent
amount of Iranian oil is despatched from a location on Iran’s coast with the Persian Gulf
to purchasers of Caspian oil. The distance from Neka to the Gulf coast of Iran is of the
order of 1000 km, so the swap eliminates the need for the Caspian oil to be conveyed this
distance. Infrastructure is in place for daily swaps of up to half a million barrels [53]. The
Tehran Refinery receives from crude oil from Neka along the Sari-Rey pipeline [54].
The Ishafan Refinery also receives from Shadegan and Marun, and can refine up to 0.37
million barrels per day [55]. Expansion to beyond that is under way with the installation of
new refining capability [56]. The Tabriz Refinery began operations in 1978 [57]. Having a
capacity of > 0.1 million barrels per day, the refinery receives domestic crude oil by pipeline
from Ahwaz as well as Caspian oil by the Sari-Rey pipeline.
The Shiraz Refinery is a condensate refinery, with a capacity of 120000 barrels per day [58] .
The condensate, having been stripped from natural gas from the South Pars field, is in its
origin similar to that from the fields off eastern England discussed previously. The condensate
is conveyed to the refinery by pipeline from Asaluyeh. The Lavan Refinery is at an island
55
location in the Persian Gulf and it receives oil from three offshore fields in the Gulf. It
has a capacity of 55000 barrels per day [59] of crude oil. It too receives condensate from
the South Pars gas field, in a quantity of 20000 barrels per day. The Persian Gulf Star Oil
Refinery receives condensate only, from which it produces gasoline [60]. The Kermanshah
Refinery in western Iran is undergoing upgrading which will bring its daily capacity to
20000 barrels per day [61]. It receives crude oil from sources including Ahwaz. It also
receives from the Naft Shahr field which, as noted above, extends over the border with
Iraq. The Bandar Abbas Refinery has a capacity of > 0.3 million barrels per day [62]. Like
several of the other refineries featuring in this part of the book, it receives condensate as
well as crude oil [63]. Refinery operations in Iran have been focused on making the country
self-sufficient in gasoline [64]. Iran imported 40 million barrels of gasoline in 2017 [64].
That is the motive for refining condensate, and a comparison can be made with the fact
that traditionally light crudes rich in gasoline are more saleable than heavy ones containing
less gasoline. This point is developed in Chapter 1. Even so a great deal of the condensate
originating in Iran is exported [65] instead of being refined locally.
The Zawiya Refinery in Libya (next row of the table) has a capacity of 120000 barrels per
day [68]. There have recently been security issues at the refinery [69]. The El-Brega Refinery
has a capacity of 8000 barrels per day [70]. In March 2018 there was an explosion there
[71]. The fire was at the methanol plant, where petroleum material is converted to methanol
via syngas. The Sarir Refinery is a small one at 10000 barrels per day [72]. It receives oil of
37 degrees API from the Sarir field. The Tobruk Refinery, which is on the Mediterranean
coast, can refine 120000 barrels of crude oil per day [73]. It receives crude from the Sarir
and Messla fields combined as a blend [74]. The blend has an API gravity of 38.9 degrees,
signifying a density of 830 kg m-3. The point is made in [74] that 38.9 degrees is almost
exactly the API gravity of benchmark Brent crude.
The capacity of the Skikda Refinery in Algeria (below) is > 0.3 million barrels per day [77]
making it the largest oil refinery in Africa. It receives light crudes from within Algeria. Its
Nelson complexity index is a modest 3.9 [78]. That is because heavy products are sold as
fuel oil instead of having plant to convert them to distillate equivalents as at several of the
refineries discussed in this book.
56
Plate 3.2. The Skikda Refinery in November 2018.

The Adrar Refinery receives condensate from the Touat gas field and has a capacity of 12500
barrels per day [80]. The Algiers Refinery can refine 100000 barrels per day of crude oil [81].
Over the period 2012 to 2015 this refinery underwent improvements (‘rehabilitation’ [82])
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which raised its capacity. Plate 3.3 below shows lifting of a distillation column in readiness
for installation of a new one [83]. The removed column weighed 188 tonnes. The new
column will enable the refinery to produce gasoline conforming to EU specifications (see
also the discussion below of the Arzew Refinery).
Plate 3.3. Lifting of a column at the Algiers Refinery during modernisation.

Arzew Refinery has a capacity of 60000 barrels per day [84]. It receives Saharan blend, a
light crude (API gravity 45.3 degrees), which is conveyed 419 km along the Haoudh El
Hamra-Arzew Oil pipeline [85]. The refinery will soon manufacture 200000 tonnes per
year of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) for distribution to refineries throughout Algeria
for use as an octane enhancer [86]. This will enable the refineries to produce fuel of Euro
5 quality. The use of benzene or other aromatics for this purpose can cause particulate
emissions exceeding those permitted by the Euro 5 specs. The Hassi Messaoud Refinery
has a capacity of 27000 barrels per day [87]. It receives crude from an oilfield of the same
name where there is associated gas [88]. There is a compressor at Hassi Messaoud by use of
which 120900 tonnes of natural gas will be despatched annually for pipeline distribution
[87]. The monetary value of this quantity of natural gas is of the order of $US30 million.
58
The Abu Dhabi Refinery in the UAE (next row of the table), capacity 85000 barrels per
day, receives condensate as well as crude oil. Fujairah Refinery can refine a similar daily
amount [91]. The Ruwais Refinery is much larger at 0.4 million barrels per day [92]. It
takes condensate as well as crude oil. It receives for refining crude oil from sources including
the Murban Bab offshore oilfield. Crude from this source is both sweet and light. Ruwais
also receives crude from the Upper Zakum oilfield which is 80 km offshore Abu Dhabi.
It is expected that supply of this will eventually totally replace supply of Murban crude
and because it is denser than Murban and has more residue this will require a means of
converting heavy material to light [93], a recurrent theme in this book. When a crude oil
is fractionated the sulphur content becomes concentrated in the higher boiling components
[94] and this can make for difficulties with such conversion. It is intended at Ruwais that
atmospheric residue desulfurization (ARDS), catalytic sulphur removal prior to residuum
conversion, will be used to address this [95]. Internationally, sulphur removed in refinery
operations becomes ‘refinery sulphur’, a valuable product. A major part of the world’s supply
of elemental sulphur is ‘refinery sulphur’, and to that can be added sulphur recovered from the
sweetening of natural gas. The Jebel Ali Refinery entered service in 1999 and is undergoing
expansion which will take its capacity to 0.21 million barrels per day [96]. After expansion
the refinery will have storage space for almost 3 million barrels of refined product some of
which will go to the domestic market and some to the export market.
The Umm Said Refinery in Qatar (next row of the table) has been in operation for over
65 years [99]. Its initial capacity was 600 barrels of oil per day. That was at a time (1953)
when international oil production was 13 million barrels per day. In 1977 there was an
explosion there which claimed six lives [100]. It was caused by failure of a tank containing
refrigerated propane. At Umm Said is a terminal where oil from Qatar’s onshore Dukhan
field is sent, either for conveyance to the refinery or for export [101]. Laffan 1 and 2
refineries are for condensate from the Qatar North field [102]. The matter of the identity of
condensate with light crude has featured in the discussion of Kuwait and in the discussion
of the Netherlands. It will be continued below in the discussion of Nigeria.
Can an OPEC country incorporate the production figures for condensate with those of crude
oil in reporting production or claiming conformity with quotas? There is no unequivocal
answer, and the point is addressed in some detail in [105]. An important role of OPEC
is avoidance of oversupply, which is why it imposes quotas on member countries. Does a
combined oil and condensate quantity in excess of the quota signify non-compliance? Or
is the quota for crude oil only? This question has been asked recently in connection with
Nigeria [106]. Crude oil and condensate are sometimes mixed together, for example to
control the viscosity [107], but OPEC quotas are for amounts produced having had no
processing such as mixing. Possible arbitrariness of distinction is alluded to in [106].
59
The Kaduna Refinery in Nigeria has a capacity of 0.1 million barrels per day. It was idle for
several months in 2018 [108]. The Port Harcourt Refinery, which has a capacity about twice
that of Kaduna, is in an extremely poor (‘shocking’ [109]) state of repair. The nameplate
capacity of the Warri Refinery is 0.125 million barrels per day, and it has recently been
operating at 63% of that [110]. The capacity of the Ogbele Refinery is > 5000 barrels per
day [111] and growth of the refinery is expected. Commissioning of the refinery was in
2011, and its products include diesel for the local market. The Dangote Refinery is near
Lagos. It will have one distillation unit, so there will be a single influx stream of crude
oil for the entire refinery. That makes it by definition a single-train refinery, and it will
be one of the largest such in the world [112]. (See also the discussion of the Phillips 66
Alliance Refinery in a later chapter.) The refinery will take crude from particular suppliers
and return the refined products to them [113]. There is no oil refining at all in Equatorial
Guinea, which has been an OPEC country only since 2017 [116]. In the hoped for joint
undertaking with PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.), the fact that Equatorial Guinea
and Venezuela both have Spanish as the primary language is seen as being auspicious.
The refining capacity given for Gabon (next row of the table) is about half the nameplate
capacity of the sole refinery there, the Sogara Refinery. For reasons including the effects of
civil unrest, the refinery is operating well below nameplate capacity [118]. It receives oil
from the Rabi Kounga oilfield, which is close to the Equator. That the refinery, which came
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60
into operation in the 1960s, lacks a means of converting the residue to lighter products is
ruefully noted in [119]. The residue from the refining is therefore sold on for processing
elsewhere. It is first taken to storage tanks in the national capital Libreville by the tanker
vessel Cap Ferret, which can hold only about 70000 barrels of hydrocarbon inventory. All
of this sounds unsatisfactory, and that there are plans for a new refinery is not surprising
[120]. The target production figure is 60000 barrels per day.
The Republic of the Congo is the most recent entrant (2018) to OPEC. Pointe Noire
Refinery is the sole refinery there. Its capacity is below national requirements of gasoline, jet
fuel and diesel, and this necessitates the import of some refined petroleum material [123].
Moving on to the refineries in Indonesia, the Plaju (Musi) Refinery (next row of the table)
is in Sumatra. Its capacity is 0.13 million barrels per day and it receives imported as well as
domestic oil [126]. The Balongan Refinery is in West Java, and receives imported oil from
numerous sources including Gabon and Australia [127]. There was a fire at the refinery in
early 2019 [128]. It was possibly started by welding, an example of ‘hot work’. The Dumai
Refinery has a capacity of 170000 barrels per day [129] and uses Duri crude and Minas
crude. The latter is heavy and the former light; both originate at Sumatra. This refinery
is elderly, having been in service when Sumatra was part of the Dutch East Indies which
was a major supplier of oil to pre-WW2 Japan. The Cilacap Refinery, which is on Java,
processes 0.35 million barrels per day of oil [130]. Having begun operations in 1974, the
Cilacap Refinery has undergone a number of enlargements and upgradings. The most recent
development is an RFCC - residue fluid catalytic cracking - unit for converting residue to
light material, commissioned in 2015 [131]. This will produce gasoline of Research Octane
Number (RON) > 93 which is also compliant with EU requirements for emissions of NOx,
SO2 and particulate. The difference between FCC and RFCC is one of degree. RFCC can
be applied to heavier material than FCC and uses higher temperatures, and it is possible
for RFCC to eliminate the need for vacuum distillation. There is a return to this point
when the Cadereyta Refinery in Mexico is discussed in a later chapter. The Balikpapan
Refinery in East Kalimantan has similarly been equipped with RFCC [132]. The capacity
of the refinery is 90000 barrels per day. This refinery features briefly in the next chapter. It
is possible for a refinery to have both FCC and RFCC. One example of this is the CNPC
Lanzhou Refinery (Chapter 9).
The Sungai Pakning Refinery is a small one (50000 barrels per day) and over 60 years old,
lacking a means of residuum conversion. Even so it receives heavy crude, and > 50% of
the crude oil weight becomes Low Sulfur Waxy Residue (LSWR) [133]. This practice has
been prevalent at Indonesian refineries [134] and the LSWR is exported. Its uses include
blending with bunker fuel. It has been reported that Japan, Thailand and South Korea
have experienced a reduction in LSWR availability from Indonesia, and this is attributed
to retention of the LSWR by Indonesia for its own use [135]. It is reasonable to conjecture
61
that as Indonesian refineries have gone to RFCC this has been a factor in reduced amounts
of LSWR. The Cepu Refinery in East Java, which has been described as a ‘mini refinery’,
can refine 3800 barrels per day [136]. The Kasim Refinery in West Papua has a capacity of
10000 barrels per day [137]. It performs distillation only [138] so one expects it to have a
Nelson complexity index not far in excess of unity. The refinery is expressly excluded from
Pertamina’s refinery upgrading budget [139]. That and its location in West Papua do not
augur well for its continued existence.
The Luanda Refinery in Angola (next row of the table) has a capacity of 57000 barrels per
day [141] and has been in operation for sixty years. It receives crude from sources including
the Palanca oilfield (offshore Angola, API gravity 37.2 degrees) and the Kuito oilfield (also
offshore Angola, API gravity 19.7 degrees). It will shortly undergo modifications to increase
the gasoline output by conversion of the heavy material. Note that one of the crudes received
is itself very heavy [142] and therefore not in distillation as productive of gasoline as a light
crude. There are plans for a grass roots refinery at Cabinda, part of Angola though separated
from the rest of it by a strip of land belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The target capacity of this refinery is 60000 barrels per day [143]. There is at Cabinda at
present only a topping refinery, which can receive up to 16000 barrels per day for basic
distillation, fractions from which are passed along for processing into final products. It is
operated by Chevron [144].
Moving on to Venezuela (next row of the table), the CRP comprises Amuay Refinery,
Cardón Refinery and Bajo Grande Refinery. At Amuay there was a fire in 2012 in which
41 people died [145]. The combined nameplate capacity of the refineries in the Paraguaná
Refinery Complex is almost a million barrels per day [148]. The three member refineries
were all originally independent and were combined into the CRP. CRP has recently been
operating at well below nameplate capacity, largely because of condition decline [149].
Recently repair work there has been carried out by volunteers [150]. See Plate 3.4 below.
Plate 3.4. Volunteers from the Workers’ Productive Army who have carried out
maintenance and repair work at the Paraguaná Refinery Complex in Venezuela.
62
The Paraguaná Refinery Complex has received crude oil from Lake Maracaibo and from
the Orinoco Belt. Maracaibo crudes have API gravities of > 22 degrees signifying a density
not more than 920 kg m-3 [151]. Crudes from the Orinoco Belt have API gravities down
to 9 degrees, signifying crude oil as dense as or denser than water [152]. One would expect
that in the processing of such crudes residuum conversion would be very important. Totally
consistent with this is the fact that the Amuay has a ‘flexicoker’ capable of processing 64000
barrels per day [153]. FlexicokingTM is a process originated by ExxonMobil for residuum
conversion. It takes place in a fluidised bed. The flexicoker at Amuay is the biggest in the
world. Flexicoking features in other parts of this book.
The Puerto La Cruz Refinery also receives crude oil from the Orinoco Belt [154]. It is
a deep conversion refinery [155], a term which was introduced in the previous chapter
in the discussion of the TOTAL Antwerp Refinery. Such a refinery will have a Nelson
complexity index of at least 12. One must avoid the view that deep conversion refineries
are necessarily the most productive and beneficial. There is the obvious point that heavy
fuel oil and petroleum coke are valuable products as is base material for lubricants, and in
producing these a refinery with deep conversion capability will not draw on it. Sometimes
such a refinery will draw on its deep conversion capability when there is a need to increase
amounts of gasoline and kerosene and perhaps when receiving a more than usually dense
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63
crude. An example of a refinery where some of the residue is converted into saleable
materials instead of being broken down is the Caltex Yeosu Refinery in Korea, the fourth
largest in the world, which is discussed in Chapter 8. The El Palito Refinery in Venezuela
has a capacity of 280000 barrels per day and receives crude oil from Orinoco [156]. The
PDVSA San Roque Refinery has a capacity of only 5800 barrels per day [157] and is set
up for distillation only. There has been some emphasis on wax residue at this refinery. It
has produced food grade paraffin wax as well as wax for candles and polishes [158].
The Esmeraldas Refinery in Ecuador (next row of the table) has a capacity of 0.11 million
barrels per day and is undergoing maintenance and expansion. That includes the FCC,
which had become unreliable [160]. The La Libertad Refinery is rated at 45000 barrels
per day [161]. The Shushufindi Refinery is a topping refinery [162]. All three refineries in
Ecuador have needing guarding against guerrilla attack [163]. Also under guard is the Balao
oil shipping port near the town of Esmeraldas, from which oil is exported.
3.2 SUPPLEMENTARY COMMENTS

The sum of all of the refining capacities in the table for the OPEC countries is 12.3 million
barrels per day. It is intended that by 2021 this will have increased to 13.3 million barrels
per day [164]. The expansion will be met partly by expansion of existing refineries and
partly by new ones. Three examples in the second category follow. A refinery is planned
for location in Manabi Province in Ecuador [165]. An ambitious capacity of 0.3 million
barrels per day was originally hoped for. Manabi is on the Pacific coast of Ecuador and it
is intended that refined products from it will be exported to Asia. In Algeria, the proposed
Tiaret Refinery will have a capacity of 0.1 million barrels per day [166]. In the previous
section the point was made that major amounts of crude oil from Algeria are taken to Sicily
for refining, and the refined products returned to Algeria. Obviously the Tiaret Refinery
will help eliminate the need for that. Lobito, Angola is expected to be the scene of a grass
roots refinery. It is a coastal location and will receive oil from offshore Angola [167].
3.3 NON-OPEC MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES

Jordan has borders with Saudi Arabia and with Iraq, both OPEC countries. Bahrain is the
Persian Gulf. Each of these has a single large oil refinery, and Israel, which has a border
with Jordan, has two major oil refineries. Yemen, which has a border with Saudi Arabia,
has two refineries. These countries will be discussed in turn.
64
Zarqa Oil Refinery (Jordan Petroleum Refinery

Jordan.
Company), capacity 105000 barrels per day [168].
Sitra Refinery (Bahrain Petroleum Company a.k.a. BAPCO)

Bahrain.
Refinery, capacity 230000 barrels per day [169].
Ashdod Refinery (Paz Oil Company), capacity 90000 barrels per day
Israel.
[170]. Haifa Refinery (BAZAN), capacity 196000 barrels per day [171].
Aden Refinery (Aden Refinery Company), capacity 150000

Yemen. barrels per day [174]. Marib Refinery (Yemen Hunt Oil
Homs Refinery (Homs Refining Company), capacity 120000

Syria. barrels per day [176]. Banias Refinery (Banias Refinery
The Zarqa Oil Refinery in Jordan (near Amman) has catalytic reforming, naphtha hydrotreating,
vacuum distillation and FCC. It also produces asphalt. It receives crude oil from Iraq. The
BAPCO Refinery gets about a fifth of its crude oil from an onshore field in Bahrain and the
balance from the offshore Abu Safah field. It is the oldest refinery in the Persian Gulf region.
The Ashdod Refinery in Israel is well equipped with post-fractionation facilities having,
for example, vacuum distillation, FCC and visbreaking. Its Nelson complexity index is
7.5 [170]. The Haifa (BAZAN) refinery is similarly well set up, and has a Nelson complexity
index of 7.4 [171]. Israel imports large amounts (~ 0.3 million barrels per day) of crude
oil, about three quarters of it from Kurdistan. The promoters of the formation of the State
of Israel in 1948 would have done well to put a stable oil supply high on the agenda, yet
such stability was precluded by the geographical location and proximity to Arab countries.
The two refineries in Israel, being ‘versatile’ as reflected in their Nelson complexity indices,
make for flexibility of crude processing and this to a degree mitigates supply issues.
The Ashdod Refinery commenced operation in 1973, the year of the oil crisis which is
described in [172]. By contrast the Haifa Refinery predates the State of Israel, having
come into operation in 1939. On 30th December 1947, Zionist paramilitary forces aimed
grenades at Arab workers at this refinery killing six of them and injuring 42 more [173],
and there were many deaths and injuries in the escalation resulting from the Arab response.
This became known as the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre.
65
The Aden Refinery in Yemen commenced production in 1954 at a capacity 20% lower than
the present one [174]. It is a hydroskimming refinery, and uses PlatformingTM. It has received
crude from many sources over its 65 year life The Marib Refinery in Yemen is a topping
refinery. The Homs Refinery in Syria, which commenced operation exactly 60 years ago,
receives domestic crude oil of varying API gravity [178]. The Banias Refinery is the newer
of the refineries in Syria, postdating Homs by about 20 years. It too uses domestic crude oil.
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66
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[93] https://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/adnoc-to-invest-3-1bn-in-ruwais-refinery-
to-expand-crude-processing-options-1.702573
[94] Jones J.C. ‘Topics in Environmental and Safety Aspects of Combustion Technology’
Whittles Publishing, Caithness (1997).
[95] Marafi A., Hauser A., Stanislaus A. ‘Atmospheric residue desulfurization process for
residual oil upgrading: An investigation of the effect of catalyst type and operating severity
on product oil quality’ Energy and Fuels 20 1145-1149 (2006).
[96] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/jebel-ali-refinery-expansion-project/
[97] https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/overview/market-share-matters-despite-global-price-
volatility-country-remains-leading-player-oil-and-gas
[98] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/qatar-withdraw-opec-
january-2019-181203061900372.html
[99] https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2010/01/the-qatar-oil-discoveries
[100] https://www.scribd.com/doc/21090127/UMM-Said-LPG-Plant-Disaster-03-04-77
[101] https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=QAT
70
[102] https://qp.com.qa/en/QPActivities/Pages/SubsidiariesAndJointVenturesDetails.aspx?aid=36
[103] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/business/energy-environment/in-nigeria-plans-
for-the-worlds-largest-refinery.html
[104] https://www.channelstv.com/2019/01/02/nigeria-recorded-9-growth-in-oil-production-
in-2018-nnpc/
[105] Jones J.C. ‘OPEC: Its Role and Influence since 1960’ Ventus Publishing, Fredericksberg
(2014).
[106] https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-opec-oil-analysis/crude-or-condensate-the-
dilemma-over-nigerias-oil-cut-exemption-idUKKBN1CP0FZ
[107] Dehaghani A.H.S., Badizad M.H. ‘Experimental study of Iranian crude oil viscosity
reduction by diluting with heptane, methanol, toluene, gas condensate and naphtha’
Petroleum 2 415-424 (2016).
[108] https://punchng.com/kaduna-refinery-idle-for-seven-months-loses-n18-7bn/
[109] http://petrobarometer.thecable.ng/2018/10/17/deterioration-port-harcourt-refinery-
shocking-md/
[110] www.sharpedgenews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5700:warri-
refinery-up-and-running-nnpc&Itemid=641
[111] http://sweetcrudereports.com/2019/02/01/ndep-commission-ogbele-phase-ii-refinery/
[112] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/dangote-refinery-lagos/
[113] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-21/dangote-says-on-schedule-to-
finish-nigeria-oil-refinery-in-2020
[114] https://africanbusinessmagazine.com/uncategorised/equatorial-guinea-industrial-capacity/
[115] https://tradingeconomics.com/equatorial-guinea/crude-oil-production
[116] https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm
[117] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-25/equatorial-guinea-is-looking-
to-build-a-refinery-with-venezuela
[118] http://www.africanews.com/2016/09/05/gabon-s-sole-oil-refinery-resumes-operations-
after-post-election-shutdown/
[119] https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=COG
[120] https://www.theoilandgasyear.com/interviews/gabons-refined-crude/
[121] https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=COG
[122] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/pointe-noire-refinery
[123] https://www.theoilandgasyear.com/interviews/congos-shifting-fuel-distribution-map/
[124] https://ycharts.com/indicators/indonesia_oil_refinery_capacities
[125] https://tradingeconomics.com/indonesia/crude-oil-production
[126] https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/07/pertamina-operate-plaju-refinery-
half-capacity.html
[127] https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/pertamina-widens-crude-oil-selection-for-
balongan-refinery-document/
71
[128] https://www.rambuenergy.com/2019/02/pertaminas-balongan-refinery-facility-caught-
by-fire/
[129] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/dumai-refinery
[130] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/pt-pertamina-cilacap-refinery-
upgrade-project-indonesia/
[131] https://www.rambuenergy.com/2015/09/pertaminas-rfcc-refinery-project-in-cilacap-
enters-commissioning-phase/
[132] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/balikpapan-refinery-expansion/
[133] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/120-indonesia/oil-refining/304-
pertamina-sungai-pakning-oil-refinery
[134] https://www.mckinseyenergyinsights.com/resources/refinery-reference-desk/lswr/
[135] https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/070816-asia-low-
sulfur-waxy-residue-market-seen-tightening-in-july-on-dearth-of-indonesian-exports
pusdiklat-migas-cepu-oil-refinery
pertamina-kasim-oil-refinery
[138] ‘Indonesia Mining, Oil and Gas Industry Export-Import, Business Opportunities
Handbook’ Volume 1 ‘Strategic and Practical Information’ LPB Publishing Ltd. (2009)
accessible online as an e-book.
The Wake
the only emission we want to leave behind
.QYURGGF'PIKPGU/GFKWOURGGF'PIKPGU6WTDQEJCTIGTU2TQRGNNGTU2TQRWNUKQP2CEMCIGU2TKOG5GTX
6JGFGUKIPQHGEQHTKGPFN[OCTKPGRQYGTCPFRTQRWNUKQPUQNWVKQPUKUETWEKCNHQT/#0&KGUGN6WTDQ
2QYGTEQORGVGPEKGUCTGQHHGTGFYKVJVJGYQTNFoUNCTIGUVGPIKPGRTQITCOOGsJCXKPIQWVRWVUURCPPKPI
HTQOVQM9RGTGPIKPG)GVWRHTQPV
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72
[139] https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/08/30/pertamina-upgrade-aging-refineries.
html
[140] https://www.export.gov/article?id=Angola-Oil-and-Gas
[141] www.sonangol.co.ao/English/AreasOfActivity/Downstream/Pages/Refinery.aspx
[142] https://africaoilandpower.com/2019/02/28/luanda-refinery-to-quadruple-gasoline-output/
[143] https://macauhub.com.mo/2018/11/12/pt-construcao-da-refinaria-de-cabinda-em-
angola-adjudicada-a-consorcio-united-shine/
[144] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/specialsales/spotlight/angola/article12.
html?noredirect=on
Edition Whittles Publishing, Caithness (2014)
[146] https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis_includes/countries_long/Venezuela/
venezuela_exe.pdf
[147] https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Venezuelas-Oil-Production-Could-Fall-
Below-700000-Bpd-Next-Year.html
[148] https://hyperleap.com/topic/Paraguaná_Refinery_Complex
[149] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-pdvsa-paraguana/top-venezuela-
refineries-at-34-percent-of-capacity-union-documents-idUSKBN1CL2T0
[150] https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14059
[151] http://archives.datapages.com/data/bulletns/1982-83/data/pg/0067/0002/0200/0242.htm
[152] http://theoildrum.com/node/7342
[153] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/features/feature-top-ten-largest-oil-refineries-
world/
[154] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/puerto-la-cruz-refinery-deep-
conversion-project-anzoategui/
[155] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/puerto-la-cruz-refinery-deep-
conversion-project-anzoategui/
[156] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2012/07/pdvsa-lets-contract-for-el-palito-refinery-
expansion.html
[157] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/268-venezuela/oil-refining/815-
pdvsa-san-roque-oil-refinery
[158] http://killajoules.wikidot.com/archive:san-roque-refinery-incorporates-technology-to-
increase
[159] https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/148.htm
[160] https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2N1WS0Y1
[161] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/la-libertad-refinery
[162] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/shushufindi-refinery
[163] https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1663962-ecuador-military-guarding-oil-assets-
amid-threats
[164] https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/650.htm
73
[165] https://newsbase.com/topstories/scaled-down-pacific-refinery-project-possibility
[166] https://www.mees.com/2013/3/15/refining-petrochemicals/algeria-preparing-tender-
for-biskra-and-tiaret-refineries/9a8115c0-8673-11e7-82ec-c1100938ad1c
[167] https://www.afrra.org/sites/default/files/newsletter/Sonangol_Refinery%20Presentation.pdf
[168] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/136-jordan/oil-refining/376-
jordan-petroleum-zarqa-oil-refinery
[169] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bahrain-oil-refinery-idUSKBN1QR08T
[170] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/ashdod-refinery
[171] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/haifa-refinery
[172] Jones J.C. ‘OPEC: Its Role and Influence since 1960’ Ventus Publishing, Fredericksberg
(2014).
[173] https://worldhistoryproject.org/1947/12/30/haifa-oil-refinery-massacre
[174] https://mohammedjabr.wordpress.com/economy/aden-refinery/
[175] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/274-yemen/oil-refining/820-
yorc-marib-oil-refinery
[176] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/240-syria/oil-refining/601-homs-
oil-refinery
[177] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/banias-refinery
[178] http://wikimapia.org/1832763/Homs-refinery
74
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The USA and Canada
4 THE USA AND CANADA
4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE USA

All of the states of the US having refineries are listed in the table below, with details of
capacity in the right hand column and further information in the main text. Note that the
states additional to the lower 48, Alaska and Hawaii, are both well capitalised with refineries.
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75
Saraland Refinery (Shell). Tuscaloosa Refinery (Hunt Refining Co.). Atmore

AL
Refinery (Goodway Refining). Total capacity 150000 bbl per day [1].
Kenai Refinery (Marathon Petroleum Company). North Pole

AK Refinery (Petro Star). Prudhoe Bay Refinery (BP) Prudhoe Bay
Refinery (ConocoPhillips). Valdez Refinery (Petro Star).
AR El Dorado Refinery (Delek, HQ in Israel). Smackover Refinery (Cross Oil Refining).
Bakersfield Refinery (Delek). Bakersfield Refinery (Kern Oil & Refining Co.).
Bakersfield Refinery (San Joaquin Refining Co.). Benicia Refinery (Valero). Carson
Refinery (Tesoro). El Segundo Refinery (Chevron). Golden Eagle Refinery (Marathon,
previously Tesoro). Long Beach Refinery (World Energy LLC, previously Delek).
CA Los Angeles Refinery (Phillips 66). Los Angeles Refinery (Marathon). Martinez
Refinery (Shell). Paramount Refinery (Paramount Petroleum). Richmond Refinery
(Chevron). San Francisco Refinery (Phillips 66). Santa Maria Refinery (Greka
Energy). South Gate Refinery (Lunday Thagard Co.). Torrance Refinery (PBF
Energy). Wilmington Refinery (Valero). Wilmington Asphalt Refinery (Valero).
CO Commerce City Refinery (Suncor Energy U.S.A. Inc.).
DE Delaware City R efinery (PBF).
GA Savannah Refinery (NuStar Energy).
HI Kapolei Refinery (Hawaii Pacific Energy). Hawaii Refinery (Chevron).
Lemont Refinery (Citgo, a subsidiary of PDVSA). Joliet Refinery

IL (ExxonMobil). Robinson Refinery (Marathon Petroleum
Company). Wood River Refinery (WRB Refining).
IN Whiting Refinery (BP). Mount Vernon Refinery (Countrymark Co-op).
Coffeyville Refinery (Coffeyville Resources).

KS
El Dorado Refinery (HollyFrontier) McPherson Refinery (CHS Inc.),
Catlettsburg Refinery (Marathon). Somerset Refinery

KY
(Continental Refining Company).
Alliance Refinery (Phillips 66). Baton Rouge Refinery (ExxonMobil). Chalmette

Refinery (PBF Energy). Convent Refinery (Shell). Cotton Valley Refinery (Calumet
Lubricants). Garyville Refinery (Marathon). Krotz Springs Refinery (Delek).
Lake Charles Refinery (Calcasieu Refining). Lake Charles Refinery (Citgo).
LA
Lake Charles Refinery (Pelican Refining). Lake Charles Refinery (Phillips 66).
Meraux Refinery (Valero). Norco Refinery (Shell). Port Allen Refinery (Placid
Refining). Princeton Refinery (Calumet Lubricants). Shreveport Refinery
(Calumet Lubricants). St. Charles Refinery (Valero). St. Rose Refinery (Shell).
MI Marathon Detroit Refinery (Marathon).
MN St. Paul Park Refinery (Marathon). Pine Bend Refinery (Flint Hills Resources).
76
Pascagoula Refinery (Chevron). Vicksburg Refinery (Ergon).

MS
Rogers Lacy Refinery (Hunt Southland Refining).
Billings Refinery (Phillips 66). Billings Refinery (ExxonMobil). Calumet

MT
Montana Refinery (Calumet Lubricants). Laurel Refinery (Cenex).
NV Eagle Springs Refinery (Foreland Refining).
Bayway Refinery (Phillips 66). Paulsboro Refinery

NJ
(PBF). Perth Amboy Refinery (Chevron).
NM Navajo Refinery (HollyFrontier). Gallup Refinery (Marathon).
ND Mandan Refinery (Marathon). Dakota Prairie Refinery (Marathon).
Canton Refinery (Marathon). Lima Refinery (Husky Energy) Toledo

OH
Refinery (BP/Husky Energy). Toledo Refinery (PBF).
Ardmore Refinery (Valero). Ponca City Refinery (Phillips 66). Tulsa Refinery East and
OK
Tulsa Refinery West (HollyFrontier). Wynnewood Refinery (Wynnewood Refining).
Bradford Refinery (American Refining Group). Philadelphia

PA Refinery (Philadelphia Energy Solutions). Trainer Refinery (Delta
Air Lines). Warren Refinery (United Refining Company).
TN Memphis Refinery (Valero).
Baytown Refinery (ExxonMobil). Big Spring Refinery (Delek). Beaumont Refinery

(ExxonMobil). Borger Refinery (WRB Refining). Corpus Christi Complex (Flint Hills
Resources). Corpus Christi Refinery (Citgo). Corpus Christi East and West Refinery
(Valero). Deer Park Refinery (Shell). El Paso Refinery (Marathon). Galveston Bay
Refinery (Marathon). Houston Refinery (Lyondell). Houston Refinery (Valero).
TX
Independent Refinery (Independent Refining). McKee Refinery (Valero). Nixon
Refinery (Blue Dolphin). Pasadena Refinery (Petrobras). Port Arthur Refinery
(TOTAL). Port Arthur Refinery (Motiva Enterprises). Port Arthur Refinery (Valero).
San Antonio Refinery (Calumet Lubricants). Sweeny Refinery (Phillips 66). Texas
City Refinery (Valero). Three Rivers Refinery (Valero). Tyler Refinery (Delek).
North Salt Lake Refinery (Big West Oil). Salt Lake City Refinery
UT (Chevron). Salt Lake City Refinery (Marathon). Woods Cross Refinery
(HollyFrontier). Woods Cross Refinery (Silver Eagle Refining).
Shell Anacortes Refinery (Shell). Marathon Anacortes Refinery (Marathon). Cherry

WA
Point Refinery (BP). Ferndale Refinery (Phillips 66) Tacoma Refinery (TrailStone).
WV Newell Refinery (Ergon).
Superior Refinery (Husky Energy).

WI
Currently out of service because of fire and explosion damage. See main text.
Cheyenne Refinery (HollyFrontier). Douglas Refinery (Genesis Energy). Evanston

WY Refinery (Silver Eagle Refining). Sinclair Casper Refinery (Sinclair Oil). Sinclair
Refinery (Sinclair Oil). Newcastle Refinery (Wyoming Refining Company).
The abbreviations for the respective states are those from ISO 3166: Country codes and codes for their
subdivisions.
77
The Saraland Refinery (below), as well as producing fuels, supplies Shell Chemicals with
olefin feedstock [2]. That is where the heavy material is diverted, so there is no residuum
conversion at this refinery.
Plate 4.1. Saraland Refinery in Mobile AL.

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78
The capacity of the Tuscaloosa Refinery is 72000 barrels per day, about 10% lower than
that of Saraland. ‘Residuum conversion’ has made several appearances in this book. At
Tuscaloosa naphtha, the fraction between gasoline and kerosene in boiling range, is converted
to gasoline blendstock by reforming [3], a less vigorous process than cracking. This uses
the Continuous Catalytic Reforming (CCR) Platforming™ Process developed by Honeywell
[4] which is widely applied, for example at the Balikpapan Refinery in Indonesia which
features in the previous chapter [5]. ‘Reforming’ is of course a general term for a process
effecting a change in composition. The CCR Process can be applied not only to making
gasoline but to making other products from oil, e.g. jet fuel as at the Balikpapan Refinery
in Indonesia [5] (see previous chapter). ‘Platforming’ in this sense is also a general term:
it simply means ‘platinum reforming’, and was coined 70 years ago. Another Honeywell
process is Polybed™ for removal of hydrogen from process streams. This is outlined later in
the book with the Haldia Refinery in West Bengal as an example. Atmore, capacity 4000
barrels per day, is a topping refinery [6].
Moving on to the refineries in Alaska, the Kenai Refinery processes 42000 barrels per day
of oil from the Cook Inlet (offshore, currently being decommissioned [7]) and the Alaska
North Slope. Through a 68 mile pipeline the refinery supplies Anchorage International
Airport and the Port of Anchorage. The Petrostar North Pole Refinery, located in the town
of North Pole fourteen miles from Fairbanks, has a capacity of 22000 barrels per day [8].
The Flint Hills Resources Refinery in North Pole ceased operations in 2014 [9]. One reason
for the closure of the refinery, which commenced operations in 1977, was contamination
of the ground occupied by the refinery and its spread beyond the refinery. One of the
contaminants is sulfolane:
which is used as a solvent, notably for butadiene, having been developed as a solvent for that
by Shell. There is a return to sulfolane in Chapter 11 when the Petron Bataan Refinery in
the Philippines is described. The BP Prudhoe Bay Refinery is a topping refinery processing
15000 barrels per day. It is referred to in [10] as a COTU: crude oil topping unit. The
ConocoPhillips Prudhoe Bay Refinery performs atmospheric distillation only [11]. The
Valdez Refinery, located in a town of the same name, refines 60000 barrels per day of
crude oil from the Alaska North Slope [12]. It produces ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD)
in both marine/highway grade and Arctic grade. The most important difference is in the
79
cloud point, at which solid starts to deposit. This obviously has to be very low in Arctic
grade diesel fuel and cloud points < -50oC are possible [13].
The El Dorado Arkansas Refinery has a capacity of 80000 barrels per day [14]. It receives
Arkansas crudes, West Texas crudes and domestic offshore crudes [15]. In February 2019
there was an injury-free fire at this refinery [16]. The Smackover Refinery in AR is a much
smaller one than El Dorado, 7500 barrels per day [17], but comparison with El Dorado is
not sound as Smackover Refinery is not a conventional refinery producing gasoline, diesel and
so on. Smackover Refinery, which is 100 miles from Little Rock, specialises in naphthenic
base oils a.k.a. pale oils [18]. Manufacture of these is by distillation naphthenic crude oil,
crude oil with a high cycloalkane content. These are used in the manufacture of products
including automatic transmission fluids.
Moving on to California (next row of the table), we note that this state has a refining
capacity of 2 million barrels per day [19]. That is across nineteen refineries, giving an average
refinery capacity of 0.1 million barrels per day. Anticipating the later discussion, the biggest
refineries in California are El Segundo, Carson and Richmond, each at around a quarter of
a million barrels per day. The three refineries in Bakersfield are discussed together below.
Capacity 70000 bbl per day [20].

Delek Bakersfield Refinery.
No activity since 2013.
Supply of gasoline and diesel

Kern Oil & Refining Co. Bakersfield Refinery.
for use in CA [23].
Receives naphthenic crude oils. Processing

San Joaquin Refining Co. Bakersfield Refinery.
into diesel fuel and naphthenic oils [25].
Prior to 2013 the Delek Bakersfield Refinery obtained crude oil from the San Joaquin Valley,
which produces > 0.4 million barrels of oil per day [21]. Plans to transport Bakken oil (ND/
MT) to the refinery by rail have met with resistance [22]. From the San Francisco Bay area to
Los Angeles is a drive of about 370 miles. The Kern Oil & Refining Co. Bakersfield Refinery
has seen itself as the only refinery along this route which is producing gasoline [24]. The
San Joaquin Refining Co. Bakersfield Refinery is a specialist refinery as noted. The Benicia
Refinery, commissioned over 50 years ago, now has a capacity of 170000 barrels per day.
It receives both domestic (San Joaquin and Alaska North Slope) and foreign crude oil. The
Carson Refinery can process 0.265 million barrels of crude oil per day and has the high
Nelson complexity index of 13.2 [26] reflecting its capabilities beyond fractionation including
residuum conversion. It receives crude oil from the Alaska North Slope, from West Africa
and from the Middle East. The Panama Canal is of course used by hydrocarbon-bearing
vessels, and the term ‘Panamax tanker ‘ was coined with reference to it.
80
This is a suitable point at which to introduce the equivalent distillation capacity (EDC) of
a refinery:
EDC = capacity/bbl per day × Nelson complexity index
The EDC of a refinery is the capacity of a topping refinery (Nelson complexity index = 1)
which would require the same resources for operation. So on this basis Carson requires
resources equivalent to those of a hypothetical topping refinery of daily capacity 3.5 million
barrels. There will be a return to EDC at later stages of the book.
The El Segundo Refinery in southern California has about the same capacity as Carson [27].
It started production in 1911 when kerosene for illuminating oil was at least as saleable as
gasoline, if not more so. The refinery shortly after its opening is shown in Plate 4.2 below;
at that time it belonged to Standard Oil.
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81
Plate 4.2. El Segundo Refinery shortly after commencement of operations in 1911.

The Golden Eagle Refinery in northern California has a capacity of 166000 barrels per day
[29] and, like El Segundo, goes back over a century. As well as distillate fuels, this refinery
produces petroleum coke. Some of this is used by an electricity utility in California, and
some is exported [29]. It uses both domestic and imported oil. It is pointed out in [30]
that at Golden Eagle, as at many elderly refineries, modifications to plant and installations
over a long period preclude a holistic approach to troubleshooting. There is a return to
this point when the Joliet Refinery in Illinois is discussed. The Delek Long Beach Refinery,
capacity 34000 barrels per day [31], is a topping refinery and produces major amounts of
asphalt. There are a range of asphalts, distinguished on the basis of viscosity (at 60°C).
Asphalt from this refinery is taken to an asphalt terminal from which it is passed on for
further processing into the respective grades.
The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery is at two sites 5 miles apart which are linked by
pipeline [32]. Fractionation takes place at one site and further processing at the other,
and the capacity is 139000 barrels per day. The Marathon Los Angeles Refinery, capacity
0.36 million barrels per day, receives oil from within the US and from overseas countries
including Ecuador [33].
The Martinez Refinery near San Francisco, which uses crude oil from San Joaquin, is
also more than a century old and its current capacity is 155000 barrels per day [34]. A
speculation (no more) on why so many refineries were built in California in the very early
20th Century follows. There had been successful trials of oil production offshore California
in the 1890s and this was with a view to supplementing onshore supply from the traditional
‘oil states’ such as NJ and PA. In the meantime the oilfields of Texas proliferated and there
was a loss of interest in production offshore CA. Offshore production therefore ceased.
In the mid 1940s offshore oil production began in the Gulf of Mexico, but it was not
resumed off California until about 1960. In the late 19th Century, Cleveland OH was the
82
most important refining location in the US. The Paramount Refinery belongs to a later
era, having begun in the 1930s [35]. Situated at Long Beach, where as we have seen there
are several refineries, it has a capacity of 34000 barrels per day and (like the Delek Long
Beach Refinery) is a major supplier of asphalt. The Richmond Refinery came into service in
1902. As well as supplying liquid fuels across the boiling range is it also a major supplier of
base oils for such things as lubricants [36]. Interestingly, they are made not from residual
material but heavy distillate (‘gas oil’). The Phillips 66 San Francisco Refinery receives a
variety of crudes, from CA, elsewhere in the US and foreign countries [37]. It comprises
two previously independent refineries, Santa Maria (operating since 1955) and Rodeo
(operating since 1896). Fractionation at Santa Maria is followed by transfer to Rodeo
for final conversion to products. The capacity is 120000 barrels per day and products are
marketed within California. There have been discussions of possible use at this refinery of
oil from Canadian tar sands instead of conventional crude oil [38]. Also at Santa Maria is
a refinery owned by Greka energy and it too produces asphalt for roads as well as kerosene
and distillate feedstock for petrochemical manufacture [39]. Greka are also producers of
crude oil, and they tend to divert some of their oil to this refinery at times when oil prices
are low. The PBF Energy Torrance Refinery has a capacity of 155000 barrels per day and
a high Nelson complexity index, 14.9 [40]. It produces liquid fuel right across the boiling
point range as well as petroleum coke and sulphur.
Both the Wilmington Refinery and the Wilmington Asphalt Refinery are operated by Valero
(HQ in San Antonio TX), who have featured previously in this book in the coverage of
the Benicia Refinery and of the Pembroke Refinery in the UK. Wilmington Refinery takes
135000 barrels of crude oil per day for processing, or sometimes influx to the refinery is
partly unfinished product from topping refineries [41]. Valero operate fourteen refineries,
and crude oil prices are obviously of the utmost importance to them. Daily the company
posts prices for benchmark US crude oils (e.g. [42]). These are Texas Panhandle, WTI, South
Texas Light, Mirando (TX), North Texas Sweet, Oklahoma Panhandle, NW Oklahoma Sweet
and Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS). What is very noticeable is that on any one day LLS is up
to $10 per barrel more expensive than the others and is closer to the Brent (N. Sea) price
than to the prices of the US crudes. On a particular day in March 2019 Brent was $67
per barrel to the nearest dollar, and LLS $61 per barrel. On the same day the WTI (West
Texas Intermediate) price was $53. The OPEC basket price was $65. Some of the heavy
material from the Wilmington Refinery goes to the Wilmington Asphalt Refinery where it
is processed into grades along the lines described for the Delek Long Beach Refinery.
The Commerce City Refinery in Colorado (next row of the table) has a capacity of the order
of 100000 barrels per day [43]. It produces asphalt as well as the usual gamut of liquid
fuels. The Delaware City Refinery has a capacity of just under 0.2 million barrels per day
[44]. There was a fire there in 2019 [45]. Crude oil is conveyed by barge to the refinery,
83
and some of it is transferred to a PBF Refinery in NJ. There have been issues with taking
the oil by barge to other venues [46]. The Savannah Refinery GA receives Venezuelan crude
from PDVSA [47]. It is an asphalt refinery [48] and its products include asphalt emulsions.
The Kapolei Refinery in Hawaii (next row of the table) produces across the whole range
of distillate and residual fuels as well as asphalt [49]. Its capacity is 94000 barrels per day.
It supplies jet fuel to Honolulu International Airport, also petroleum fuels for shipping to
remote and undeveloped Pacific regions [50]. Its Nelson complexity index of 5.7 probably
reflects the production of heavy fuel oil and of asphalt instead of residuum conversion.
Chevron’s Hawaii Refinery has a capacity of 58000 barrels per day and supplies jet fuel to
the Hickam Air Force Base which operates jointly with the Naval base at Pearl Harbour [51].
The Lemont Refinery in Chicago IL (next row of the table) has a capacity of 167000 barrels
per day [52] and (as would be expected from the link with PDVSA) imports sour crude oil
from Venezuela. The sulphur removal process is at a sufficiently high temperature for the
elemental sulphur product to be molten. It can easily be kept in the melted state for ease of
handling as is done at Lemont amongst many other refineries, and a leak of molten sulphur
at a Japanese refinery will be discussed in a later chapter. The Joliet Refinery was opened in
1972 and is still the second newest refinery in the US. Then newest is the Yuma Refinery in
Arizona which postdates Joliet by > 35 years. Obviously the oil refining capacity of the US
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increased enormously over that time, and this was accommodated by expansion of existing
refineries. Safety in the oil refining industry can be adversely affected by this [53]. (See
also the discussion of the Krotz Spring Refinery in Louisiana.) Joliet receives conventional
crude oil (not oil from tar sands) by pipeline from Canada. Wood River Refinery, located in
Roxana IL and close to the IL/MO state border, can refine 0.3 million barrels of crude oil
daily [54]. Some of its crude oil supply is from the Gulf of Mexico though it also receives
Canadian oil having been made from tar sands and exported via the Keystone Pipeline [55].
The Whiting Refinery in Indiana has long been a major one, having come into operation
during the regime of J.D. Rockefeller [56]. It is now the largest BP refinery in the world,
having a capacity of > 0.4 million barrels per day [57]. Mount Vernon Refinery is much
smaller and receives domestic oil via pipeline [58]. A gusher well erupted at Mount Vernon
about 80 years ago, and the refinery came into existence shortly afterwards [59]. The
Coffeyville Refinery in Kansas (next row of the table) has a capacity of 108000 barrels per
day [60]. It receives Gulf Coast oil and its refined products are sold in AR, OK, KS, MO,
NE, IA and SD. The El Dorado Refinery in Kansas has a capacity of 135000 barrels per
day and can access oil from the Cushing hub in Oklahoma [61]. This has storage capability
for 94 million barrels of crude [62], which is more than a day’s international consumption
and about a seventh of quantity of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Catlettsburg Refinery KY (next row of the table) is a large one, capacity ~ 0.3 million
barrels per day [63]. It is an obvious example of the expansion in US refineries instead of
the construction of new ones: it opened in 1916 with a capacity of 1000 barrels per day. It
receives a broad range of crudes and also condensate. Somerset Refinery is very small (5000
barrels per day [64]). It takes crude oil in the API gravity range 30 to 45 degrees [65] from
domestic onshore sources. Continental Refining Company, the operators of this refinery,
practice Transmix [66]. That means that distillates – gasoline, jet fuel and possibly diesel –
which have unavoidably mixed in pipeline transport are separated to make saleable products.
Louisiana (next row of the table) has eighteen refineries, and these will be described in turn.
The Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery near New Orleans has a capacity of about a quarter of a
million barrels per day [67]. A fatal accident in the ‘slips, trips and falls’ category occurred
there in 2018 [68]. The refinery receives oil from the Gulf of Mexico by pipeline and also
tight oil – oil from reservoirs with very low permeability – by tanker [69]. A single-train
refinery, it produces across the boiling range of distillate fuels having FCC capability.
Interestingly, the petroleum coke it produces in ‘anode grade’. That makes it suitable for use
in lithium ion batteries which, of course, are becoming increasingly important as electric
cars and hybrid cars become more numerous. Oil production will continue into the era of
electric cars, and a rough speculation has been that in 2040 crude oil production will be
at about the 2000 level. It would be a remarkable example of reciprocity if petroleum coke
85
from oil refining was diverted to lithium ion battery manufacture. Anode grade petroleum
coke also features in the discussion of the Shell Norco Refinery. The ExxonMobil Baton
Rouge Refinery has a capacity of half a million barrels per day [70]. It is currently proposing
to expand its polypropylene production there to 400000 tonnes per year [71]. It was at the
Gulf Coast about 90 years ago that the production of olefins from petroleum material began.
The Chalmette Refinery is dual-train, and has a capacity of about 200000 barrels per day
[72]. Its products are transported along the Collins Oil Products Pipeline. City of Collins
is a major centre for wholesale supply of petroleum products. The Chalmette Refinery has
ownership (PBF) in common with two refineries already discussed in this chapter: Torrance
Refinery and Delaware City Refinery. The Shell Convent Refinery, situated between Baton
Rouge and New Orleans, processes daily a quantity of crude oil approaching a quarter
of a million barrels [73]. It produces distillates and their equivalents obtained by FCC.
The Cotton Valley Refinery has a capacity of 13500 barrels per day. It used atmospheric
distillation to produce solvents for applications such as paints and organic drilling fluids
[74]. The Garyville Refinery, operated by Marathon, can refine daily over half a million
barrels of oil [75]. Its product range is extremely wide, and includes fuel grade petroleum
coke. Fuel grade petroleum coke is a substitute for coal or lignite and tends to be from
vacuum rather than atmospheric distillation. It is higher in sulphur than the anode grade
coke produced at the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery as discussed above. If the petroleum coke
is burnt in a fluidised bed the sulphur dioxide resulting can be trapped by injecting calcium
oxide. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, petroleum coke as a fuel does have one clear edge
over lignite viz. a higher calorific value. There is a brief return to fuel grade petroleum coke
when the Phillips 66 Billings Refinery in Montana is discussed.
Before the Yuma Refinery came into operation, the Krotz Spring Refinery was the newest
grass roots refinery in the US [76]. Its input crudes include Louisiana Light Crude which, as
discussed above, is an expensive crude. At 74000 barrels per day it is of moderate capacity,
and the products are distributed within the south east US. Like the several refineries at
Bakersfield PA, those at Lake Charles LA will be discussed together.
Capacity 32000 bbl per day [77]. 22000

Lake Charles Refinery (Calcasieu Refining).
bbl per day when commissioned.
Lake Charles Refinery (Citgo). Capacity 45000 bbl per day [78]
Lake Charles Refinery (Pelican Refining). Capacity 56000 bbl per day [79].
Lake Charles Refinery (Phillips 66). Capacity 0.25 million bbl per day [80].
86
The Lake Charles Refinery is close to the Calcasieu Ship Channel. By analogy the Essar
Refinery in England discussed in the chapter on EU countries is close to the Manchester
Ship Canal. The Calcasieu Refining Lake Charles Refinery produces jet fuel and diesel but
no gasoline. The lightest material is sold as naphtha for the petrochemical industry. There is
no vacuum distillation. At the Citgo Lake Charles Refinery there is both FCC and vacuum
distillation. It uses crude from Venezuela. At the Pelican Refining Lake Charles Refinery
some of the refined material is ‘semi-finished’ and is passed on for further processing. The
refinery produces jet fuel and asphalt. There is vacuum distillation. Crude oil is received
by barge along the Calcasieu River and that is true of other Lake Charles refineries. The
Phillips 66 Lake Charles Refinery is a large one, and receives both domestic and foreign
crudes. It also receives ‘advantaged crude oil’, by which is meant oil produced at lower
than usual development cost and therefore saleable at a discount. The ‘development cost’
includes exploration, and there is a record [81] of a GoM reserve of 200 million barrels
of oil the existence of which was indicated by imaging of the geological formation. That
in itself is not of course new, but this particular oil would not have become apparent with
imaging methods even in the late 20th Century. Oil so discovered has a low exploration cost
and so is ‘advantaged’ in marketing. The margin is even greater if oil so discovered can be
produced at existing infrastructure. It is intended that the newly discovered oil reserve in
the GoM referred to will be tied back to BP’s platform at the Atlantis field [82]. There is a
strong movement towards advantaged oil in the North American downstream oil industry
at present, and Phillips 66 have identified strongly with it [83] not only at Lake Charles
but also at its California refineries described above and at their NJ refinery (see below). It
obtains advantaged crude from onshore US fields and from Canada.
The Meraux Refinery has a capacity of 135000 barrels per day [84], making it quite a major
refinery. At a quarter of a million barrels per day, the Shell Norco Refinery is bigger still
[85]. The land which it occupies was once sugar cane fields. As might be expected from
a refinery on this scale, its products are numerous and varied. They include the full range
of distillate fuels as well as olefins for the manufacture of products including plastics and
detergents. It also produces anode grade petroleum coke. Placid Refining, owners of the
Port Allen Refinery (see plate 4.3), have a policy of purchasing only domestic crude oil
for their 80000 barrel per day refinery [86]. That might be connected with the fact that
its customers include the US defence forces to whom it supplies jet fuel. Its domestic and
industrial sales extend as far along the eastern US as Virginia.
87
Plate 4.3. Placid Port Allen Refinery in Louisiana.

Image taken from: https://www.mca-llc.com/?creativo_portfolio=placid-refining-co-port-allen-la
The Calumet Lubricants Princeton Refinery is a specialist refinery making such commodities
as solvents and waxes some of which are exported [87]. That is not to the exclusion of
conventional products. It conducts atmospheric distillation to obtain the starting materials
and these are at the heavy end of the distillation range. Those at the lighter end are put
to fuel use in the usual way. The same company at its Shreveport Refinery takes 60000
barrels per day of paraffinic crude oil and makes both conventional and specialty products.
There was a fatal accident at this refinery in 2016 [88]. The Valero St. Charles Refinery
has a capacity of 340000 barrels per day [89]. A remarkable 185000 barrels of distillate
is produced daily [90], about 50% of the total. That plus the amount of distillate means
that 80% of the total product – the ‘product slate’ – is light material [91]. The Shell St.
Rose Refinery has a capacity of 55000 barrels of crude oil per day [92] and supplies the
petrochemical industry [93].
The Marathon Detroit Refinery (next row of the table) has a capacity of 140000 barrels per
day [94]. It is the only refinery in Michigan and obtains some of its crude oil from Canada.
The Marathon refinery in Minnesota (next row of the table) has belonged to Marathon
only since Q2 2018 [95]. At 102000 barrels per day it is the smaller of the two refineries
in Minnesota. The Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend Refinery has a capacity at least three
times that of the Marathon refinery [96]. The Pascagoula Refinery in Mississippi (next row
of the table) has a capacity of 330000 barrels per day [97]. It uses imported crude and is set
up for liquid fuels production. These are distributed via the Plantation pipeline [98]. This
88
pipeline conveys 700000 barrels of refined material per day in pipes of varying diameter up
to 30 inches (0.762 m). In a 30 inch pipe the linear speed of flow would be:
700000 × 0.159 m3/[(24 × 3600 s) × (π × 0.3812 m2)] = 2.8 m s-1 or 6.3 m.p.h.
If one uses a value of 2.5 × 10-4 m2 s-1 for the kinematic viscosity of the refined material in
the pipeline (based on a value for kerosene given in [99]), the Reynolds number for flow
in the 30 inch diameter pipe is:
2.8 m s-1 × 0.762 m/(2.5 × 10-4 m2 s-1) = 8500
indicating turbulent flow. A Reynolds number below a third of that would have signified
laminar flow. A similar calculation is performed in Chapter 6 for the Volgograd Refinery
in Russia.
The Vicksburg Refinery in Mississippi is small, 25000 barrels per day for production of
naphthenic oils as at several of the other refineries covered in this book e.g. Smackover.
Vicksburg is the largest naphthenic oils refinery in the world and a major exporter of them
[100]. It obtains crude oil from sources including the North Sea. The Hunt Southland
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Rogers Lacy Refinery has a capacity as low as 11000 barrels per day [101]. It has its origins
in the discovery of an oilfield in Heidelberg MS in the 1940s [102] and its development
by the Texan oil magnate (‘wildcatter’ [103]) Rogers E. Lacy (1882-1963).
The Billings Refinery (Phillips 66) in MT receives crude oil from the US and from Canada
[104]. Distilled products go to MT, WY, ID, UT, CO and WA and it produces fuel grade
petroleum coke. The Billings Refinery (ExxonMobil) can process 60000 barrels of crude
oil per day [105]. The refinery produces fuels across the range from LPG to diesel. It is
not a supplier of materials such as olefins for petrochemical manufacture as most of the
ExxonMobil refineries in the US (six in all) are. Two PBF (formed jointly by Petroplus
Holdings Blackstone Group and First Reserve) refineries described in this book, Torrance
Refinery CA and Chalmette Refinery LA, were until fairly recently ExxonMobil refineries
[106]. In recent years there has been speculation that ExxonMobil’s Billings Refinery will
also change hands [106]. It has only around third of the capacity of Torrance or Chalmette,
and in relation to prospects of sale the view has been expressed that Billings is ‘small for
majors’ [106]. The Calumet Montana Refinery in Great Falls takes relatively inexpensive
heavy crude from Canada and converts the highest boiling distillate to gasoline equivalent by
hydrocracking [107]. When carbon-carbon bonds are broken in cracking they are replaced
by carbon-hydrogen bonds, and in hydrocracking elemental hydrogen is provided for that
purpose. The H2 can be made in situ by steam reforming hydrocarbons (as at the Calumet
Montana Refinery ) or it can be obtained from a supplier: the latter is becoming increasingly
prevalent [108]. If cracking is without hydrogen the valency requirement will be met by
recombination and synthesis of a heavy residue additional to the wanted products. That is
not necessarily unacceptable, especially if there is on outlet for the residue such as gasifying it
or (as is quite common: guidelines apply) blending it with heavy fuel oil. The Cenex Laurel
Refinery in Montana has been in operation for over 70 years and now refines 60000 barrels
per day of crude oil which it obtains from Kansas [109]. Eagle Springs Refinery in Nevada
(next row of the table) at 1700 barrels per day [110] is fairly minuscule and its products
are asphalt and heavy fuel oil. If at a refinery hydrogen availability is restricting processes
requiring hydrogen – if the steam reformer is a ‘bottleneck’ – reforming conditions can be
adjusted to promote the shift reaction:
CO + H2O H2 + CO2
and frequently the agent in the promotion is the catalyst. In that way there can be
‘debottlenecking’ of hydrogen production.
The Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery in NJ (next row of the table) is in New York Harbour
and has a capacity of > 230000 barrels per day [111]. It receives oil from foreign countries
including Canada and also advantaged oil from within the US. In the coverage of the Lake
90
Charles Refinery it was noted that Phillips 66 is obtaining major amounts of advantaged
oil. The Bayway Refinery has FCC and also produces large amounts of propylene. The
PBF Paulsboro Refinery in NJ previously belonged to Valero [112] and has a capacity of
180000 barrels per day. Its ‘slate’ is expansive, from gasoline to base oils, and it is a producer
of petroleum coke [113]. It receives foreign crudes including Arab Light (API gravity 33
degrees [114]) and Arab Heavy (API gravity 27 degrees [114]), both from Saudi Arabia. It
also receives Hamaca crude oil from Venezuela. This is from the Orinoco Belt and has an
API gravity as low as 8 degrees. It can be upgraded by operations including hydrocracking
to API gravity 26 degrees and a viscosity which permits pipeline flow [115]. PBF Paulsboro
Refinery also receives Urals crude (API gravity 32 degrees [116]), which is a blend of Russian
crudes, and Kirkuk crude from Iraq. The Chevron Perth Amboy Refinery has since the
1980s been producing asphalt only. It does not itself process distillate products.
The Navajo Refinery in NM (next row of the table) can process 100000 barrels of crude
oil per day [117]. It has vacuum distillation and FCC. It also has hydrofluoric alkylation,
that is, alkylation with an HF catalyst of olefins to produce branched alkanes up to about
C8 which, if blended with gasoline, enhance its octane rating. Being branched these can
more easily release alkyl radicals which will combine with and neutralise the effects of
reactive intermediates which would otherwise have caused knock. For a very long time
until proscribed, lead tetraethyl performed this role. Sulphuric acid instead of hydrofluoric
can be used in alkylation at refineries. The Marathon Gallup Refinery in the NM town of
the same name can process 26000 barrels per day of crude oil [118]. Most of the crude
it receives is ‘Four Corners Sweet’, a US crude additional to those already discussed e.g.
Louisiana Light Crude. As is widely known, Four Corners is where the borders of CO,
UT, AZ and NM come together and the Marathon Gallup Refinery is situated in what
is loosely called the Four Corners area. The C3 4 compounds in LPG can be converted
to C6 8 with a hydrogen fluoride catalyst, and this is done at the refinery in Gallup. The
heavier material so obtained can be incorporated into gasoline. (See also the discussion of
the Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery.)
The Mandan Refinery in ND (next row of the table) has a capacity of 74000 barrels per day
and obtains most of its crude oil from Bakken (see the discussion of the Delek Bakersfield
Refinery above) [119]. Crude oil is conveyed to this refinery by the North Dakota crude
oil pipeline, a.k.a. the High Plains crude oil pipeline, where in 2013 there was a leak as a
result of which 20000 barrels of oil were released [120]. There were no consequences. At
the Dakota Prairie Refinery in Dickinson ND, which came into existence in 2013, diesel
is the sole end product. The refinery acts as a topping refinery, and the other fractions are
passed along to other refineries for completion into products [121]. The diesel is sold locally.
91
Ohio (next row of the table) was in J.D. Rockefeller’s time the refining capital of the US.
He bought up the refineries there in what was dubbed the Cleveland Massacre. (In an
unpublished paper presented in 2012, the author said apropos of this ‘To strengthen the
metaphor, it was the antitrust laws which prevented the massacre from becoming a holocaust’.)
The Canton Refinery has a capacity of 93000 barrels per day [122]. Its oil supply is not
entirely of conventional crude. It also receives condensate from the Utica tight gas play
[123] and delete ‘from’ as shown. This has an API gravity of 60 degrees. What has been said
previously about the possible merger of identities of light crude and condensate is relevant
here. The Lima Refinery in OH is one of the oldest in the world, having been in service
since 1886 [124]. Until 2007 it was called the Solar Refinery. It has had several changes of
owner but has not over that entire time shut down except for maintenance. It is noted for
being the scene of the first removal of sulphur from crude oil by use of copper oxide. Its
current capacity is 165000 barrels per day [125]. There was some consternation amongst
local residents on a January evening in 2018 when one of the flares had what seemed to
them to be a dangerously large flame (see plate 4.4). In fact nothing was amiss. Some
hydrocarbon inventory had had to be removed from an undisclosed part of the refinery and
was in a controlled way diverted to the flare [126]. Comments follow below the illustration.
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Plate 4.4. Refinery flare at Lima OH on 8th January 2018. The larger than usual
flame caused unnecessary panic amongst local residents.
A refinery flare is of course a burner, and it enables a flame, an intrinsically dynamic

phenomenon, to be kept stationary. That is because flame propagation towards to burner
mouth and cold gas movement away from it are equal and opposite. Such stabilisation is
possible only across a range of thermal delivery defined by:
rate of supply of fuel (kg s-1) × calorific value of the

fuel (J kg-1) ÷ burner mouth area (m2)
so the thermal delivery has units J m-2s-1 or W m-2. The specifications of the flare would
have given the range of thermal deliveries within which it could anchor a flame, and on
8th January 2018 it would have received at a thermal delivery higher than usual but within
the range. See also the discussion in Chapter 5 of the ENAP Aconcagua Concon Refinery
in Chile and the discussion in Chapter 10 of the Altona Refinery in Melbourne.
The BP/Husky Energy Toledo Refinery has a capacity of 155000 barrels per day [127]. Its
vacuum distillation capacity is nearly half the atmospheric distillation capacity. It has FCC
and hydrocracking. (2019 is the centenary year of this refinery.) The PBF Toledo Refinery,
which has been in operation since the 1890s, produces diesel [128]. Its other products
93
include toluene and xylene as well as propylene trimer and propylene tetramer, respectively
C9H18 and C12H24. Many isomers are possible for each. These substances are used to make
detergents. It obtains crudes from sources including Bakken, the Gulf Coast and Canada.
It is also set up for UDEX, extraction of aromatics from gasoline by ethylene glycol [129].
Nitrobenzene is manufactured in large quantities and benzene from the UDEX process is
suitable for that, being ‘nitration grade’.
The refinery in Ardmore OK owned by Valero (next row of the table) has a capacity of
90000 barrels per day and has a very wide product range including, in addition to distillate
fuel, propylene and asphalt [130]. Not surprisingly it can receive oil from the hub at
Cushing OK, although that is not its sole source. When the refinery opened in 1913 it
received crude from the Cushing oilfield. Ponca City Refinery, operated by Phillips 66, also
dates back to about the time of WW1. It uses domestic crude from locations including the
Gulf Coast, also some imported crude conveyed by pipeline from the Gulf Coast [131].
It takes advantaged oil, like the other Phillips 66 refineries featuring in this chapter. Tulsa
Refinery East and Tulsa Refinery West will be considered jointly as they have since 2019
been operated as a single refinery. Such integration was made possible by the installation of
pipelines for transfer of processing streams between the two [132]. The combined capacity
is 125000 barrels per day. The Wynnewood Refinery, which also receives advantaged crudes,
can process 70000 barrels of oil per day [133] and this has a significance beyond being an
indicator of refinery size. US refineries are required under the Renewable Fuel Standard
(RFS), originally signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2005, to blend specified
proportions of carbon neutral fuels into conventional fuels. That usually means blending
ethanol with gasoline and biodiesel with conventional diesel. A refinery not meeting these
conditions is required to purchase credits called Renewable Identification Numbers. The
EPA has the authority to waive this requirement in the case of a refinery of capacity lower
than 75000 barrels per day, and such a waiver was in fact granted to the Wynnewood
Refinery in 2018 [134].
Moving on to Pennsylvania (next row of the table), oil from the 1859 Drake well [135]
was refined in Pennsylvania [136] as fully described in Chapter 1 of this book. Bradford
Refinery commenced production in 1881 [137]. At that time it produced 10 barrels per day
and this has risen to 10000 barrels per day in 2019 [138]. The PES Philadelphia Refinery
can process 335000 barrels of oil per day [139]. This is nearly five times the capacity below
which a waiver of the RIN obligation can be applied for. This has been linked to recent
financial difficulties at the refinery [140]. Trainer Refinery, now owned by the airline Delta
as noted, has a capacity of 185000 barrels per day [141].When Delta acquired it in 2012
it was with a view to supplying its own fleet of aircraft with fuel more cheaply. As noted
in [141], the refinery continues to function conventionally and offers refined products right
across the range.
94
The United Refining Company Warren Refinery, which can process 70000 barrels per day
of crude oil [142], is supplied by the Kiantone Pipeline. This pipeline and the refinery
have a common owner. The pipeline receives crude oil from western Canada. Some of the
refined products are marketed under the name Citgo (operators of the Lemont Refinery IL
and the Lake Charles Refinery, see above) since United Refining purchased a filling station
chain from PDVSA [143]. The Memphis Refinery in Tennessee (next row of the table) has
a capacity of 195000 barrels per day [144] and has residuum conversion to a degree that
almost 100% of the products are light, that is, those that did not originate as distillates
became the equivalent of distillates in terms of boiling range and API gravity.
There are twenty-four refineries in the next row of the table, which is for Texas. ExxonMobil
Baytown Refinery is amongst the largest in the world, having a capacity of 584000 barrels of
crude oil per day [145]. Some of the crude oil it receives is from Mexico [146]. Adjacent to
the refinery is the ExxonMobil synthesis gas unit, which uses solid residue from the refinery
as feedstock [147]. The synthesis gas is passed along to Air Products at their Baytown plant,
and they make hydrogen from it which they supply to users including the ExxonMobil
Baytown Refinery [148]. Part of ExxonMobil’s ‘Baytown area operations’ is the Mont Belvieu
plastics plant which produces large amounts of polyethylene using monomer which it
obtains from the refinery. That some refineries have produced anode grade petroleum coke
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for lithium ion manufacture has already been noted. A battery also requires a separator,
by means of which the two electrodes are kept apart so that the e.m.f. they produce can
be made available to an external circuit. ExxonMobil have developed a separator for the
lithium-ion battery [149] and it is composed of thin strata of polyethylene. On 16th March
2019 there as a fire at the ExxonMobil Baytown Refinery [150].
The Delek Big Spring Refinery has a capacity of 73000 barrels per day and a Nelson complexity
index of [151]. It processes WTI and WTS (West Texas sour) crudes. At any one time
the former is likely to be about $4 per barrel more expensive than the latter. In describing
the ExxonMobil Beaumont Refinery we first note that Beaumont TX was the scene of the
‘Spindletop gush’ in 1901 [152]. This refinery began as a Standard Oil refinery only two
years later. Its present capacity is 366000 barrels per day [153]. A significant increase by 2022
is planned. The Borger Refinery near Amarillo, owned by WRB and operated by Phillips
66, receives both crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL). It can refine 22500 barrels per
day of NGL and a considerably larger quantity of crude oil [154]. The distinction between
condensate and NGL has been a matter for debate. One distinction is that condensate is
separated at the scene of production whereas NGL are separated during natural gas processing
[155]. Obviously there is no reason why a particular condensate and a particular NGL
cannot be identical in content, but NGL is usually richer in heavier components (C5+) than
condensate. The refineries at Corpus Christi TX will be considered together.
Capacity ~ 300000 bbl per day. Crude

Corpus Christi Complex (Flint Hills Resources).
received from Eagle Ford [156].
Corpus Christi Refinery (Citgo). Capacity 57000 bbl per day [158].
Capacity 315000 bbl per day [160].

Corpus Christi East and West Refinery (Valero).
Previously two separate refineries a mile apart.
The Eagle Ford shale play, which supplies crude oil to the Flint Hills Resources complex in
Corpus Christi, is believed to contain 3 billion barrels of ‘tight oil’ [157]. There will be export
of refined products from the Flint Hills Resources refinery to Mexico. Output from the Citgo
Corpus Christi Refinery has recently been jeopardised by US sanctions against Venezuela
[159]. The Valero refinery in Corpus Christi also receives tight oil from Eagle Ford [161].
The El Paso Refinery owned by Marathon, capacity 135000 barrels per day, receives domestic
crude from places including NM [162]. Some of the refined product is exported by pipeline
to Mexico. The Galveston Bay Refinery operated by Marathon is the second largest oil refinery
in the US (the largest is the Motiva Refinery at Port Arthur, to be described below) at 585000
barrels per day [163]. It began in 1934. The refinery receives crudes from diverse sources and
96
its products take in the whole range of distillate and residual fuels. Its petroleum coke is fuel
grade like that from the Garyville Refinery, another Marathon refinery. It produces chemical
grade propylene. This is of less stringent specification than polymer grade propylene. Use of
chemical grade propylene to make polypropylene is not totally excluded, but the chemical
grade is more widely used to make such products as acrylic acid and propylene oxide [164].
Methyl acetylene CH3C≡CH occurs as a side product in propylene manufacture, and if it
is present at > 15 p.p.m. the propylene becomes refinery grade [164], and there is a return
to this when the Newcastle Refinery in Wyoming is discussed. Electricity is produced at the
El Paso Refinery at a rate of just over 1 gigawatt (GW) more than half of which is sold on
to the grid. That is an annual quantity of electricity of about 4.5 TWh, saleable for a sum
of the order of $500 million.
The Lyondell Houston Refinery has a capacity of 270000 barrels per day [165]. Again,
as would be expected from a refinery of this size the product range is comprehensive and
includes refinery grade propylene (see the discussion immediately above) and carbon black.
In general, solid carbons such as carbon black are formed as a residue in cracking processes
where there is no added hydrogen. The Valero Houston Refinery has a capacity of 145000
barrels per day and imports crude oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq [166]. Again there are a
wide range of products and they include No. 2 fuel oil and No. 6 fuel oil. These terms have
their origin in an ISO standard. No. 2 fuel oil is distillate and No 6 fuel oil is residual, often
blended with some distillate. It is sometimes necessary to dye distillate fuel oils to prevent
their illegal use as automotive diesel. Distillate fuels for home heating, a major application
of No. 2, will be less heavily taxed than diesel for vehicles or perhaps not taxed at all, so to
use No. 2 fuel oil as a vehicular fuel is to evade tax. The Valero Houston Refinery produces
distillate for both uses. It also produces isooctene C8H18, used to make ethylene–octene
copolymer. Such a product manufactured by Dow is called DowEngage® and is an elastomer.
The refinery in Houston operated by Independent Refining has a capacity of 100000 barrels
per day [167]. Independent Refining is part of Stratnor (Strategic Northern). Headquartered
in Houston, Stratnor once owned a refinery at Lake Charles LA.
The McKee Refinery, which is located in Sunray TX, obtains crude oil from TX, OK, KS
and CO. It entered operation in 1933 [168]. In 1956 there was a fire at this refinery in
which nineteen firefighters died [169]. The fire began when vapour escaped from a tank
containing pentane and hexane. The vapour diffused and ignited some distance from the
tank. Later there was tank rupture and explosion of the contents on release. In other words
there was a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion) although the term ‘BLEVE’
was not coined until 1958 [170]. The Nixon Refinery owned by Blue Dolphin is near San
Antonio. Once in mothballed status, it was recommissioned when oil from Eagle Ford
became available [171]. Information in the table for the refineries in TX is a little out of
date in just one detail: in early 2019 the Petrobras Pasadena Refinery became the Chevron
Pasadena Refinery [172]. It is the first Chevron refinery in TX and will bring Eagle Ford
97
tight oil within Chevron’s downstream portfolio. The refineries at Port Arthur TX will be
considered together.
Port Arthur Refinery (TOTAL). 185000 bbl per day [173].
> 600000 bbl per day [175]. The

Port Arthur Refinery (Motiva Enterprises).
largest oil refinery in the US.
310000 bbl per day [177]. In

Port Arthur Refinery (Valero).
operation for over a century.
At the TOTAL Port Arthur Refinery expansion of steam cracking to make ethylene from
ethane is under way. It is sometimes stated that in ‘steam cracking’ the steam is just a
diluent. Its role is in fact chemical. It removes any solid carbon featuring in the many
possible reaction steps by:
C + H 2O CO + H2
This reaction influences the concurrent reactions, and under some reacting conditions
acceleration of the ethane cracking is brought about by steam [174]. The ‘condition’ most

98
strongly affecting that is the steam-to-ethane ratio. A new steam cracker at the TOTAL Port
Arthur Refinery is expected to come into service in 2020. It will produce a million tonnes
per year of ethylene [173]. The Motiva Port Arthur Refinery (see plate 4.5 below) has been
the biggest refinery in the US since a 2012 expansion [176]. It is only the eighth largest
refinery in the world. The Paraguaná Refinery Complex described in Chapter 3 is bigger,
and there are others which significantly exceed Motiva Port Arthur in capacity, notably in
India and in South Korea. These will be covered in their due places in this book.
Plate 4.5 The Motiva Port Arthur Refinery in Texas, the largest oil refinery in the US.
Image taken from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=motiva+port+arthur+refinery
&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnnvSLm47hAhUsXhUIHS7vBq
oQ_AUIECgD&biw=1200&bih=859#imgrc=1DvLofaZ8A4YDM:
The Valero Port Arthur Refinery is set up to receive heavy crude, which is hydrocracked.
It receives crude oil from Mexico [178]. There was an explosion, involving no injuries or
deaths, at this refinery in 2017 [179]. Shortly before, the refinery had been closed down
because of Hurricane Harvey [180]. The other two refineries in Port Arthur Refinery each
had a period of closure as a result of the hurricane. It was because of the proneness of the
area to hurricanes that Motiva made a decision not to expand its refinery at Port Arthur from
its already huge size [181]. Port Arthur is Motiva’s only refinery in the US and it had been
intended to raise its capacity by 50%. That would have made it the third largest refinery in the
world, after Jamnagar Refinery in India (1.24 million barrels per day [182]) and Paraguaná.
Restricted supplies of gasoline as a result of the impact of Hurricane Harvey caused gasoline
prices to rise sharply [183]. Such a rise reflects an increase in the crack spread, that is, the
difference in price between crude oil and refined product. There are formulae for calculating
crack spread which incorporate heating oil as well as gasoline [184]. The simplest approach
is just to regard it as the gasoline price minus the crude oil price. In early 2019 petrol
was selling in TX for about $2.20 per gallon. Deducting Federal (18.4 cents per gallon)
and State (20 cents per gallon) taxes gives $1.82 per gallon or $76.44 per barrel. Using
a WTI price of $65.58 per barrel which applied on the day on which the calculation is
being performed, the crack spread is $10.86 per barrel and this is a typical value although
99
values twice this or more can occur. At the time of Hurricane Harvey unusually high crack
spreads – up to > $35 per barrel – were being reported [185], [186].
The Calumet Lubricants San Antonio Refinery receives 20000 barrels of oil per day [187].
It produces liquid fuels as well as substances for making lubricants. The Phillips 66 Sweeny
Refinery has a capacity > 250000 barrels per day [188]. In 2021 it will start to produce
hydrogen by reforming methane:
CH4 + H2O CO + 3H2
at what will be the largest hydrogen producing facility in the US [189]. It receives advantaged
crude, a trend with Phillips 66 refineries as already noted. The Valero Texas City Refinery
commenced operations in 1908 with a capacity of 10000 barrels per day [190] which has
increased by an order of magnitude. The Valero refinery at Three Rivers TX, which began
operations in 1974, has received crude oil from Eagle Ford since 2010, at first concurrently
with foreign crude [191]. The Delek Tyler Refinery has a capacity of 60000 barrels per day
[192]. It receives only light and sweet crudes, including WTI crude [193] and has FCC. 90%
of the refined material becomes distillate or equivalent. There is also hydrodesulphurisation
of the diesel product. This has a simple basis in organic chemistry:
-SH + H2 -H + H2S
where denotes an organic structure. A catalyst is used. It is noted in a later chapter that
in 2015 there was an explosion in the hydrogen production unit at a Brazilian refinery.
The Big West Oil North Salt Lake Refinery in Utah (next row of the table) has a capacity
of 35000 barrels per day and receives crude oil from the Uinta basin in UT [194]. It also
receives supplies from WY and Canada. The latter supply is syncrude, made from Alberta
tar sands. A considerable proportion of the syncrude so made is sent to the US for refining
[195]. Between extraction of the tar sands and existence of the syncrude there are a number
of processes including hydrogenation and blending, and some control over the API gravity is
possible. A value of 32 degrees is typical. The Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery has recently
observed its 70th anniversary [196]. Recently the alkylation unit at this refinery was taken
out of service and replaced by one using ISOALKY™, a novel process developed by Chevron
[197]. In this the catalyst is not HF but an ionic liquid. Generalising the discussion, these
are salts having a melting point below 100oC. The term ‘molten salt’ would not be incorrect
for such a substance in its liquid state, but as that usually means something like sodium
chloride for which the melting point is 801oC the term is usually avoided for ionic liquids.
An ionic liquid will have an organic cation and an inorganic anion [198]. One such cation
is C3N2H5+, obtained by protonating imidazole. Another is C3H10N+ ,obtained by protonating
pyrrolidine. Anions is such substances include AlCl4-, PF6- and BF4-. ISOALKY™ makes use
100
of an ionic liquid as a catalyst for alkylation. Quite apart from the performance benefits there
is the elimination of highly corrosive HF which was previously used. Ionic liquid catalysis of
alkylation features in Chapter 9 when the Anqing Company Refinery in China is discussed.
The Marathon Salt Lake City Refinery at 61000 barrels per day is the largest oil refinery
in Utah [199]. Its products are distributed in UT, ID, WA and NV and it supplies jet fuel
to the Salt Lake City International Airport. The HollyFrontier Woods Cross Refinery was
for a period running at below its nameplate capacity of 45000 barrels per day because of a
fire there in January 2019 [200]. It receives crudes from within the US and also, like the
Big West Oil North Salt Lake Refinery, syncrude from Canada [201]. The other refinery
at Woods Cross, that owned by Silver Eagle Refining, has a capacity of 10250 barrels per
day. The refinery receives ‘yellow wax crude’ from the Uintah basin in Utah as its sole
supply. This oil is of good API gravity (42 degrees) and is waxy. Since 2015 this refinery has
practiced Mobil Isomerization Dewaxing (MIDW™) [202]. Not all straight-run material in
the diesel boiling range might be suitable for fuel use, for example the cloud point might
be too high. That necessitates a narrower cut for saleable diesel. MIDW™ is a solution to
this. It is branched hydrocarbons which tend to lead to wax at sufficiently low temperatures,
and in MIDW™ branched hydrocarbons are catalytically isomerised to structures having a
lower waxing propensity [203]. At the Silver Eagle Woods Cross Refinery the diesel yield
has been raised by 40% by this means.

678'<)25<2850$67(5©6'(*5((
101
Alphabetically Virginia (VA) would have followed, but there has been no oil refining there
since the closure of the Yorktown Refinery in 2010 [204]. Moving on to the next row
of the table, the Shell Anacortes Refinery in Washington (state) processes crude from the
Alaska North Slope. It also receives crude (not syncrude) from Canada. The Marathon
Anacortes Refinery has a capacity of 119000 barrels per day [205]. It was previously the
Tesoro Anacortes Refinery and in 2010 there was an explosion and fire at this refinery in
which seven persons died [206]. It was caused by escape of naphtha from a heat exchanger.
The BP Cherry Point Refinery in WA has a daily capacity of a little under a quarter of
a million barrels, and supplies jet fuel to the international airports in Seattle, Portland
and Vancouver [207]. Petroleum coke from the refinery is heated to a temperature >
1200oC so as to remove all residual volatiles (it is ‘calcined’) and then supplied to the
aluminium industry for electrode use [208]. The BP Cherry Point Refinery is one of major
world suppliers of anode material to the aluminium industry. The Phillips 66 Ferndale
Refinery, close to the Canadian border, has a capacity of 100000 barrels per day. When
earlier in the chapter crack spread was considered for Texan refineries it was a 1:1 model,
1 barrel crude 1 barrel gasoline. An alternative is the 3:2:1 model, 1 barrel crude ⅔
barrel gasoline plus ⅓ barrel of diesel. Neither the 1:1 model nor the 3:2:1 model would
have any validity at all for refining in which residuum conversion (a term used several
times previously in this book) did not take place in a high degree. Across its entire refining
portfolio, Phillips 66 has been obtaining crack spread values on the 3:2:1 model which are
widely fluctuating (‘volatile’ [209]). The refinery in Tacoma has a capacity of 42000 barrels
per day [210]. Amongst its products is jet fuel for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, made
to US Army specifications. It is the only refinery owned TrailStone Energy, which has its
origins in the Ukraine and has had gas trading as its chief activity [211].
The Ergon Newell Refinery in WV (next row of the table) takes domestic paraffinic crude
oil which it refines at a rate of 20000 barrels per day [212]. Its products include petroleum
resins which are used to manufacture the Ergon product Coherex® which is an emulsion of
petroleum resins in water and used as a dust suppressant [213]. The Husky Energy Superior
Refinery is currently out of action following a fire and explosion in 2018 [214]. Repairs
are under way and a return to production is expected.
The HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refinery (final row of the table) has a capacity of 52000 barrels
per day [215]. In the discussion of the Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery it was described
how in alkylation processes ionic liquids were being used as a catalyst instead of HF. At the
HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refinery HF has been retained as a catalyst for alkylation, though
the safety of its handling has been improved by advanced laser detection of leaked HF [216].
The Genesis Energy Douglas Refinery has a capacity of 3800 barrels per day [217] and is
a topping refinery. The Silver Eagle Refining Evanston Refinery is also small (3000 barrels
per day) but is not a specialist refinery. Its primary product is gasoline which it extends by
102
catalytic reforming of heavier material in the naphtha boiling range. The Sinclair Casper
Refinery has a capacity of 25000 barrels per day, and supply to it includes syncrude from
Canada [218]. The Sinclair Refinery in the town of the same name, 126 miles from Casper,
has a capacity of 85000 barrels per day [219]. The larger refinery has a wider product range
than the smaller, and its products extend beyond distillate fuels to asphalt. Both refineries
date from the 1920s and have supplied automotive fuel to the ‘Mountains states’ over that
time. The Newcastle Refinery, owned by Wyoming Refining Company, is also small at 14000
barrels per day [220]. Its most recent development is benzene removal by the ExxonMobil
BenzOUTTM process [221]. This converts benzene in fractionated material to substituted
benzenes by reaction with an olefin, and ‘refinery grade propane’ is suitable for this. The
substituted benzene product is suitable for blending back.
4.2 OVERVIEW OF CANADA

As with the US, the information will be in a table followed by comments. It was explained
in the previous section how several US refineries accept syncrude from Canada for processing.
A major supplier of Canadian syncrude, for local or US refining, is Syncrude Canada Ltd.
often just referred to as Syncrude. Its HQ is in Fort McMurray Alberta. The term ‘bitumen’
is frequently used for the unprocessed hydrocarbon from tar sands. This has an API gravity
of 10 degrees or lower.
Scotford Refinery (Shell Canada). Edmonton Refinery (Suncor Energy).

Alberta. Sturgeon Bitumen Refinery (North West Redwater Partnership). Suncor Oil
Sands Refinery (Suncor). Husky Lloydminster Refinery (Husky Energy).
British
Burnaby Refinery (Parkland Fuel). Prince George Refinery (Husky Energy).
Columbia.
New
Irving Oil Refinery (Irving Oil).
Brunswick.
Newfoundland
North Atlantic Refinery (North Atlantic Refining).
and Labrador.
Nanticoke Refinery (Imperial Oil). Sarnia Refinery (Imperial Oil).

Ontario.
Sarnia Refinery (Suncor Energy). Shell Corunna Refinery (Shell).
Quebec. Montreal Refinery (Suncor Energy). Quebec City Refinery (Ultramar).
CCRL Refinery (Federated Co-operatives). Moose

Saskatchewan.
Jaw Refinery (Gibson Energy).
103
The Shell Scotford refinery itself makes syncrude at its upgrader [222]. It receives bitumen
(in the sense of the term explained above) which it hydrogenates to make syncrude. The
capacity of the refinery is 100000 barrels per day of syncrude and the products go to
Shell outlets. On the petrochemicals side, the refinery produces benzene to make styrene.
Ethylene glycol is also produced at Scotford. The carbon capture and sequestration there
has become known as the Quest CCS Project [223]. It uses amines for carbon dioxide
removal, a well characterised process. Its performance is of the order of a million tonnes
of CO2 per year. Sometimes in compilations of Canadian oil refineries scenes of upgrading
only, not subsequent fractionation, are included. An example is Long Lake Alberta, where
26000 barrels per day of syncrude are made from bitumen [224]. Another is the Horizon
Oil Sands facility at the aptly named location of Bitumount in Alberta [225].
The Sturgeon Bitumen Refinery in Alberta initially received syncrude for fractionation, but
will soon be set up to receive bitumen and convert it to syncrude [226]. Entering service
in 2017, the refinery produced 7.7 million barrels of diesel in its first year. The Suncor
Oil Sands Refinery refines 142000 barrels per day of syncrude [227]. The Husky Energy
Lloydminster Refinery, like the Shell Scotford Refinery, has its own upgrader. Asphalt is a
specialty product and it is made available across a range of specifications. (See the discussion
of the Delek Long Beach Refinery in CA.) In what is known as the Husky Tucker Energy
Scholarships
Open your mind to

new opportunities
104
Project bitumen from Tucker, Alberta is taken to the upgrader at the Lloydminster Refinery
for conversion to syncrude [228]. Its transfer along a pipeline requires dilution, and once
‘upgraded’ it is refined not at Lloydminster but at other Canadian refineries. Returning
briefly to the theme of the OPEC chapter, Venezuelan crudes frequently require dilution for
pipelining. Naphtha is commonly used as a diluent in such applications. That ‘visbreaking’
can be applied to heavy crude oils to enable them to be conveyed by pipeline has been
noted in an earlier chapter.
The Parkland Fuel Burnaby Refinery in BC was until 2018 a Chevron refinery [229]. It is
the only refinery in Vancouver. It is only able to supply 40% of the jet fuel for Vancouver
International Airport: the balance is brought by road tanker from Cherry Point Refinery
in WA [230]. There has been considerable lobbying for another refinery in Vancouver. The
Husky Energy Prince George Refinery has a capacity of 12000 barrels per day and receives
light conventional crudes [231]. That the same company sells syncrude from its upgrader
at Lloydminster has been noted. The Irving Oil Refinery in St. John NB is the largest oil
refinery in Canada, fractionating 300000 barrels per day [232]. Most of the crude oil it
receives is foreign. NB has a border with Maine, and the products of the refinery are largely
sold in the US. The North Atlantic Refinery in Newfoundland and Labrador is located in
the whimsically named town of Come by Chance, and is often referred to as the Come by
Chance Refinery. Its capacity is 130000 barrels per day [233]. It has recently started taking
local crude from the White Rose Field, API gravity 30 degrees [234]. For processing this
is blended with other crudes which might include tight oil from the US.
The Imperial Oil Nanticoke Refinery in Ontario (next row of the table) has a capacity
of 112000 barrels per day [235]. It supplies about a quarter of the gasoline used by the
motorists of Ontario. When in 2007 the refinery temporarily ceased production after a
fire there were shortages of gasoline and high prices of gasoline where it was available. The
difficulties were exacerbated by industrial action on the part of Canadian National Railways
[236]. The Imperial Oil Sarnia Refinery is, at 120000 barrel per day capacity, a large one
[237]. It has been in operation for over a century, and a major source of its crude has been
the oilfield at Lambton County Ontario [238]. There will be a return to Lambton in the
closing section of this chapter. The Suncor Energy Sarnia Refinery has a capacity of 85000
barrels per day [239]. In service since 1953 it receives conventional crude oil and, since
2007, syncrude from bitumen sands. The Shell Corunna Refinery, capacity 75000 barrels
per day, receives conventional crude oil by pipeline. At commencement of operations in
1952 it was owned by Canadian Oil Companies Ltd. It was acquired by Shell in 1963, and
another change of ownership is expected [240]. There are several major refineries in Ontario
which have been decommissioned. They include the Shell Oakville Refinery, which was in
production from 1953-1983. The land which it occupied now contains residences [241].
Similarly, the Suncor Oakville Refinery which began producing in 1958 was decommissioned
105
in 2005. In this case the site was retained by the refinery owner and used for storage of
hydrocarbon products.
The Suncor Energy Montreal Refinery, capacity 137000 barrels per day [242], receives crude
oil from North American sources, some of it via the Enbridge Line 9B pipeline. This came
into operation in 1976 with its origin in Alberta and its terminus in Quebec. In 1998 the
direction of flow was reversed so that imported oil could be transferred to Alberta which,
as can be seen from the table above, is the strongest refining province. In 2015 the flow
was returned to the original direction, and the Suncor Energy Montreal Refinery receives
oil from it [243]. There will be changes of altitude along the pipeline as well as pumping
stations, and the circumstances of flow at a particular location along the pipeline will be
different for the two directions. The change of direction cannot be made at a moment’s
notice, but requires a risk assessment. The Ultramar Quebec City Refinery has a capacity of
265000 barrels per day and uses foreign crude [244]. Since the reversal in 2015 of the flow
in the Enbridge Line 9B pipeline it has received oil from western Canada, making for less
reliance on imports. This pipeline conveys conventional crude from Alberta, not syncrude.
In Alberta at any one time, production of syncrude and its precursor bitumen significantly
exceed production of conventional crude. Even so, daily production of the latter is half a
million barrels [245].
The Federated Co-operatives CCRL (Consumers Co-operative Refinery Limited) Refinery

in Regina Saskatchewan (next row of the table) has a capacity of 130000 barrels per day
[246]. An upgrader was installed there because of fears as a result of the of the 1973 oil
embargo that Canada might become short of petroleum fuels. In view of the Canadian
setting, the term upgrader needs tightening. It does not mean conversion of bitumen to
syncrude as at Lloydminster in Alberta. It means conversion of a heavy conventional crude
to a lighter one by vacuum distillation and FCC (see the discussion of the refinery at Lysekil
in Sweden). Moose Jaw is a specialist refinery [247]. Its products include asphalt across a
viscosity range and base material for non-aqueous drill fluids.
4.3 CONCLUDING REMARKS

In the coverage of Ontario, production of oil at Lambton County in the 19th Century is
described. That was the location of the first oil well in Canada in 1858 [248]. It predates
the Drake well by a year and was therefore the first oil well in North America. Oil from
the Drake well was refined in Pittsburgh as noted. That from the 1858 well at Lambton
County was refined locally. This section has information ranging in date from time of the
Civil War to the presidency of Donald Trump. An OPEC document [249] predicts a rise
not exceeding a million barrels per day in the joint oil distillation capacity of the US and
Canada between the present time and 2040 and that most of that rise will pre-2025.
106
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[42] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Documents/Crude%20Price%20Bulletins/2019-03-
Crude%20Price%20Bulletin.pdf
[43] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/commerce-city-refinery
108
[44] https://www.pbfenergy.com/refineries
[45] https://eu.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2019/02/03/fire-delaware-city-
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[46] https://eu.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2017/03/10/delaware-city-refinery-
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[47] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/savannah-refinery
[48] http://nustarenergy.com/en-us/OurBusiness/JointVenturesMain/Asphalt/Pages/
AsphaltMain.aspx
[49] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/727-chevron-
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[50] https://parhawaii.com/services.html
[51] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-sale-chevron-hawaii-idUSKCN0XG2M5
[52] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/lemont-refinery
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[54] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/wrbwoodriverfacility/
[55] https://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/alberta-tar-sands-oil-flows-south-as-
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[56] https://www.bp.com/en_us/bp-us/what-we-do/refining/whiting.html
[57] https://www.bp.com/en_us/bp-us/what-we-do/refining/whiting.html
[58] https://www.countrymark.com/countrymark/AboutUs/Refinery.aspx
[59] https://www.countrymark.com/countrymark/AboutUs/Refinery.aspx
[60] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coffeyville-refinery-flood-idUSN0343078420070703
[61] https://www.hollyfrontier.com/operations/refineries/el-dorado/
[62] https://blog.spaceknow.com/cushing/
[63] http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/Operations/Refining_and_Marketing/Refining/_
Catlettsburg_Refinery/
[64] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/somerset-refinery
[65] http://continentalrefiningco.com/crude-oil/
[66] http://www.alliedenergycorp.com/transmix/
[67] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-phillips66-allian-idUSKBN1JW34C
[68] https://www.nola.com/news/traffic/article_d01c05db-75aa-554f-acdc-69907062341c.html
[69] https://www.phillips66.com/refining/alliance-refinery/
[70] https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/newsroom/news-releases/2019/0301_exxonmobil-
to-fund-polypropylene-unit-to-expand-baton-rouge-operations
[71] https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/newsroom/news-releases/2019/0301_exxonmobil-
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[72] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/chalmette-refinery
[73] https://www.shell.us/about-us/projects-and-locations/shell-convent-refinery.html
[74] https://www.calumetspecialty.com/facilities/production-facilities/
109
[75] http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/Operations/Refining_and_Marketing/Refining/
Garyville_Refinery/
[76] http://www.alonusa.com/refining/krotz-springs-refinery
[77] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/calcasieu-lake-charles-refinery
[78] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/667-citgo-
lake-charles-oil-refinery
[79] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/pelican-refining-company
[80] https://www.phillips66.com/refining/lake-charles-refinery
[81] https://www.oilandgas360.com/we-are-all-about-advantaged-oil-and-21st-century-data-
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[82] https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/bp-approves-expansion-of-atlantis-field-makes-
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[83] www.cccounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/28454/Fox-Report-Exh-17-and-18-Philips-
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[84] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Meraux.aspx
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[86] https://www.linkedin.com/company/placid-refining-company-llc
[87] https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-profile/CLMTu.F
110
[88] http://www.ksla.com/story/32027515/calumet-employee-fatally-injured-at-shreveport-
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[89] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Documents/VRSC%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
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[91] https://www.reuters.com/article/refinery-operations-valero-stcharles-
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[92] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/706-shell-
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[93] http://www.dnr.louisiana.gov/assets/TAD/reports/refinery_survey/refinsurvey_2012.pdf
Detroit_Refinery/
[95] http://www.startribune.com/marathon-petroleum-buying-st-paul-park-oil-
refinery/481268921/
[96] https://pinebendrefinery.com/
[97] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/chevronpascagoula/
[98] https://www.mckinseyenergyinsights.com/resources/refinery-reference-desk/plantation-
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[99] https://www.engineersedge.com/fluid_flow/kinematic-viscosity-table.htm
[100] https://ergon.com/refining-marketing
[101] https://inflationdata.com/articles/oil-refineries-united-states/
[102] https://msbusiness.com/2001/10/in-mississippi-southland-oil-equals-steadfast-production/
[103] https://flashbackdallas.com/2014/08/28/dallas-frank-lloyd-wright-skyscraper/
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[108] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=24612
[109] https://www.chsinc.com/energy-and-industrial/refining
[110] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/741-foreland-
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[111] https://www.phillips66.com/refining/bayway-refinery
[112] https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/26803/PDF-acquire-Valero-refinery
[113] https://www.pbfenergy.com/refineries#paulsboro
[114] http://www.oocities.org/twokdiamond/saudi_arabian_crude_oil_specifications.htm
[115] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/hamaca/
[116] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-types-of-crude-oil-from-Russia
[117] https://www.hollyfrontier.com/operations/refineries/navajo/default.aspx
[118] http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/fact_sheets/MPC_Gallup_
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111
[119] http://www.andeavor.com/refining/mandan/
[120] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2013/11/tesoro-logistics-to-restart-north-dakota-crude-
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[121] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/dakota-prairie-refinery-stark-
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[123] https://shale.typepad.com/utica_shale/api-gravity/
[124] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/lima-refinery/
[125] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/lima-refinery/
[126] https://www.limaohio.com/news/279227/large-flare-concerns-husky-refinery-neighbors
[127] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/bp-husky/
[128] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/698-pbf-
toledo-oil-refinery
[129] http://www.klmtechgroup.com/articles/article%20A%20001.htm
[130] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Ardmore.aspx
[131] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/ponca-city-refinery
[132] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/tulsa-east-refinery
[133] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/wynnewood-refinery
[134] https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/EPA-Gives-Biofuel-Waiver-To-
Billionaire-Icahns-Oil-Refinery.html
[135] Jones J.C. ‘Drake’s 1859 oil well’ Chemistry in Australia December 2013.
[136] https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/wiki/Samuel_Kier
[137] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/bradford-refinery
[138] https://www.amref.com/Refinery/Refinery-History.aspx
[139] https://pes-companies.com/
[140] https://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2018/02/01/whats-the-real-story-behind-
philadelphia-energy-solutions-bankruptcy-crude-oil-and-the-renewable-fuel-standard/
[141] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-delta-air-m-a-refinery/delta-air-lines-seeks-buyers-
for-a-stake-in-its-refining-subsidiary-idUSKCN1LM02U
[142] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/warren-refinery
[144] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/Memphis.aspx
[145] https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/Locations/United-States/Baytown-area-operations-
overview
[146] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/baytown-refinery
[147] https://www.globalsyngas.org/resources/world-gasification-database/baytown-syngas-plant
[148] http://killajoules.wikidot.com/archive:air-produts-to-expand-texas-plant-to-supply-
addition
112
[149] https://cen.acs.org/content/cen/articles/90/i5/ExxonMobil-Casts-Off-Battery-Venture.
html
[150] https://abc13.com/officials-investigating-cause-of-fire-at-exxonmobil-refinery/5198827/
[151] http://www.deleklogistics.com/static-files/2ea4984e-6823-40cc-89a3-8ce08077f28a
[152] https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/spindletop
[153] https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/locations/united-states/beaumont-operations/about-
exxonmobil-in-beaumont
[154] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/762-phillips-
66-borger-oil-refinery
[155] https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/workshop/ngl/pdf/definitions061413.pdf
[156] https://www.fhr.com/newsroom/2006/FLINT-HILLS-RESOURCES-COMMISSIONS-
NEW-FUEL-TERMINAL
[157] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/eagle-ford-shale
[158] https://www.citgo.com/press/news-room/news-room/2018/citgo-corpus-christi-refinery-
honors-community-partners
[159] https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/01/31/u-s-refiner-citgo-caught-in-venezuela-political-
upheaval/
[160] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/valero-bill-greehey/
[161] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/valero-corpus-christi-refinery
113
[162] http://andeavor.com/refining/el-paso/
Galveston_Bay_Refinery/
[164] https://www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000939,Optimising_distillation_column____
product_quality_____.html#.XI9_rvZ2umQ
[165] https://www.lyondellbasell.com/en/houston-refinery/
[166] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/valero-houston-refinery
[167] https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/409186/PP-14-01.pdf
[168] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/McKee.aspx
[169] http://firebuffpatrol.createaforum.com/historical-fires/1956-mckee-refinery-fire-part-1/
[170] Abbasi T, Abbasi S.A. ‘The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) is fifty
. . . and lives on!’ Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 21 485-487 (2008).
[171] https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Nixon-refinery-benefits-from-Eagle-
Ford-crude-4221647.php
[172] https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/01/31/chevron-to-buy-petrobras-
refinery.html
[173] https://www.total.com/en/energy-expertise/projects/refining-petrochemical-platform/
port-arthur-sustainable-platform
[174] https://www.total.com/en/media/news/press-releases/le-vapocraqueur-de-port-arthur-
au-texas-traite-de-lethane-issu-des-gaz-de-schiste
[175] https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-motiva-chemical/saudi-aramco-
eyes-new-petrochemical-plant-in-texas-sources-idUKKCN1HD32V
[176] https://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/150291/saudi_aramco_plans_up_to_30b_
investment_in_motiva_by_2023/
[177] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/PortArthur.aspx
[178] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/valero-port-arthur-refinery
[179] https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/blog/valero-oil-refinery-explosion-port-arthur-texas/
[180] https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Harvey-forcing-Valero-refinery-shutdown-
in-Port-12161510.php
[181] https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-weather-refinery-lessons-exclusiv/exclusive-hurricane-
worries-prompt-refiner-motiva-to-shift-expansion-plans-idUKKCN1J00DU
[182] http://www.ril.com/OurBusinesses/PetroleumRefiningAndMarketing.aspx
[183] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil/u-s-gasoline-in-first-slide-since-harvey-
oil-under-pressure-idUSKCN1BC3EQ
[184] https://www.cmegroup.com/tools-information/calc_crack.html
[185] http://tastytradenetwork.squarespace.com/tt/blog/crack-spread
[186] https://www.genscape.com/blog/aftermath-hurricane-harvey-lingers-over-us-refinery-
markets
[187] https://www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Troubled-San-Antonio-
refinery-undergoes-80-6762851.php
114
[188] https://www.phillips66.com/refining/sweeny-refinery
[189] https://www.praxair.com/news/2018/praxair-signs-new-long-term-hydrogen-supply-
agreement-for-phillips-66-sweeny-refinery
[190] https://www.houstonpress.com/news/why-is-a-99-year-old-oil-refinery-still-
running-8235961
[191] https://www.valero.com/en-us/Pages/ThreeRivers.aspx
[192] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/264-usa/oil-refining/734-delek-
tyler-oil-refinery
[193] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/tyler-refinery
[194] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/big-west-north-salt-lake-refinery
[195] https://www.syncrude.ca/our-process/understanding-our-process/
[196] https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/operations/oct-18-chevrons-gm-mitra-
kashanchi-slc-refinery-celebrating-70-years/
[197] https://americanalloyflange.com/chevrons-salt-lake-city-refinery-plans-alkylation-unit-
revamp/
[198] http://en.solvionic.com/family/ionic-liquids
[199] http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/fact_sheets/MPC_SaltLakeCity_
FactSheet1218.pdf
[200] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/03/fire-results-in-reduced-rates-at-hollyfrontier-s-
wood-cross-refinery.html
[201] https://www.futureseas.net/page/news/view/woods-cross-phase-2-expansion-in-2018
[202] ‘MIDW™ Technology as a Drop-in Catalyst Solution’ ExxonMobil White Paper
(2017). Accessible online.
[203] https://www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001473,MIDW_technology_as_a_drop_
in____catalyst_solution.html#.XJImz_Z2umQ
[204] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2010/08/western-refining-idling.html
[205] http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/fact_sheets/MPC_Anacortes_
FactSheet-1218.pdf
[206] https://www.historylink.org/File/9717
[207] https://www.bp.com/en_us/bp-us/what-we-do/refining/cherry-point.html
[208] http://www.laserpointawards.com/staff/bp-cherry-point-refinery/
[209] https://seekingalpha.com/article/3962367-phillips-66s-volatile-crack-spreads-pose-
risk-long-term-holders
[210] https://www.digitalrefining.com/news/1002954,TrailStone_acquires_U.S._Oil_and_
Refining_Company.html#.XJJIRvZ2umQ
[211] http://trailstonegroup.com/
[212] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/newell-refinery
[213] https://msds.ergon.com/files/ergon-asphalt-&-emulsions/2015_04_29-sds-us-_-coherex.pdf
[214] http://www.fox9.com/news/explosion-at-superior-wisconsin-oil-refinery-multiple-injuries
[215] https://www.hollyfrontier.com/operations/refineries/cheyenne/default.aspx
115
[216] https://www.senscient.com/HollyFrontier_Cheyenne_Refinery1.html
[217] https://www.ridgewoodenergy.com/news/1826.pdf
[218] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/evanston-refinery
[219] https://www.sinclairoil.com/about/refineries
[220] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/newcastle-refinery
[221] https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/library/asset/7ed75c8202154960b8d0bc5
ebfae042d
[222] https://www.shell.ca/en_ca/about-us/projects-and-sites/scotford.html
[223] https://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2015/shell-launches-quest-
carbon-capture-and-storage-project.html
[224] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/09/nexen-starts-work-on-long-lake-expansion.html
[225] https://www.cnrl.com/operations/north-america-exploration-and-production/oil-sands-
mining/horizon-oil-sands
[226] https://www.jwnenergy.com/article/2018/9/sturgeon-refinery-approaching-switch-
oilsands-bitumen-feedstock/
[227] https://www.suncor.com/about-us/refining
[228] https://www.rigzone.com/training/heavyoil/insight.asp?i_id=254
[229] https://www.parkland.ca/en/investors/news/article?news-id=2018-04-09-Parkland-Fuel-
Corporation-Announces-Successful-Completion-of-Turnaround

INTO AN OPPORTUNITY
OF A LIFETIME

Send us your CV on
new new dimension.
116
[230] https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/news/2016/3/03/why-vancouver-desperately-needs-
a-new-oil-refinery
[231] https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/husky-energy-puts-500-retail-
operations-and-prince-george-refinery-on-the-block
[232] https://irvingoil.com/en/operations-and-partners/operations/saint-john-refinery
[233] https://www.silverpeak.com/investment/come-by-chance-refining/
[234] https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/canadas-come-by-chance-
refinery-in-newfoundland-samples-new-crude-on-own-front-door
[235] http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11793977
[236] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/03/16/imperial-oil-nanticoke-refinery-back-to-full-
production/
[237] https://www.imperialoil.ca/en-ca/company/operations/refining-and-supply/sarnia
[238] http://www.sarniahistoricalsociety.com/story/a-brief-history-of-imperial-oil/
[239] https://www.suncor.com/about-us/refining/sarnia-refinery
[240] https://royaldutchshellgroup.com/2019/01/09/shell-looking-to-sell-corunna-plant/
[241] https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oakville-Refinery-Shell-Canada/139702262715296
[242] https://www.suncor.com/about-us/refining/montreal-refinery
[243] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/enbridge-line-9-reversal-alberta-
montreal-1.3360848
[244] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/quebec-city-refinery
[245] https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/energy-statistics/alberta
[246] http://everything.explained.today/CCRL_Refinery_Complex/
[247] https://www.gibsonenergy.com/our-operations/storage-facilities/processing-facilities/
[248] https://www.lambtonmuseums.ca/exhibit/black-gold/historic-figures/
[249] https://www.ief.org/_resources/files/events/ief-lecture---world-energy-outlook-weo-
2017-and-world-oil-outlook-woo-2017/opec---world-oil-outlook-2040.compressed.pdf
117
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Central America, South America and the Caribbean
5 CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH

AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
5.1 OVERVIEW OF CENTRAL AMERICA

The contents of the table below are backed up by further information in the main text.
Nico López Refinery (Cupet). Hermanos Díaz

Cuba.
Refinery (Cupet). Cienfuegos Refinery (Cupet).
Haina Refinery (Refinería Dominicana

Dominican Republic.
de Petróleo SA, REFIDOMSA).
Acajutla Oil Refinery (Refinería Petrolera

El Salvador.
de Acajutla and Puma Energy).
Guatemala. La Libertad Refinery (Perenco).
Tula (Pemex). Minatitlan Refinery (Pemex).

Cadereyta Refinery (Pemex).Salamanca
Mexico.
Refinery (Pemex). Francisco I. Madero Refinery
(Pemex). Salina Cruz Refinery (Pemex).
Cuesta del Plomo-Managua

Nicaragua.
Refinery (Puma Energy).
Cupet (Unión Cuba-Petróleo) is the state owned oil company in Cuba. It is engaged both
in upstream and downstream activity. Plate 5.1 below shows a Cupet retail outlet.
118
Plate 5.1. Cupet gas station in Cuba.

Image taken from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cupet&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahU
KEwj5ubv8-JfhAhVTTBUIHbcyBXkQ_AUIDygC&biw=1341&bih=885#imgrc=QPFSHIf3-JJsiM

mathematics meet.

mathematics.
119
The Nico López Refinery is in Havana. The Hermanos Díaz Refinery is in Santiago de
Cuba. They both receive Venezuelan crude [1]. Cienfuegos Refinery, which is 150 miles
from Havana, is newer than either of the others and processes 65000 barrels per day of
Venezuelan crude oil [2]. The Haina Refinery in the Dominican Republic (next row of the
table) receives 34000 barrels per day of crude oil from Venezuela [3]. It is a hydroskimming
refinery, a term which was introduced in Chapter 2 and which means a refinery having
atmospheric distillation and further processes including reforming but no vacuum distillation
and no FCC. Clearly a hydroskimming refinery is one degree of advancement beyond a
topping refinery. There is a return to this theme when the YPF Plaza Huincul Refinery in
Argentina is discussed. An aside follows.
The author has been unable to trace the etymology of ‘hydroskimming’. As described for
a number of refineries in this book, notably Sodegaura Refinery in Japan (Chapter 11)
and the Petron Bataan Refinery in the Philippines (also Chapter 11), hydrogen from the
reforming can be put to refinery use. Recalling that hydroskimming means having reforming
as the sole or principal operation beyond atmospheric distillation, it might be a reference to
the production of hydrogen as a useful product accompanying the reformed hydrocarbon.
The Aden Refinery in Yemen is discussed in Chapter 3. Its web pages (reference [174] in
Chapter 3) state ‘This refinery is one of those which uses hydrogen to process its products
(hydroskimming refinery)’. It is doubtful whether this is a correct meaning of the expression.
Acajutla Oil Refinery in El Salvador (next row of the table) has a capacity of 29300 barrels
per day [4] and is situated on the Pacific coast. It is the only oil refinery in El Salvador,
population 6.3 millions. The La Libertad Refinery in Guatemala (next row of the table)
processes 5000 barrels per day of crude oil with asphalt as the desired product [5]. Products
other than heavy residuals are exported along with crude oil from Guatemala’s Xan field.
Moving on to Mexico, it is salutary to remind oneself of the importance of Mexico to the

worldwide oil industry. At the commencement of the 20th Century there were only three
countries producing oil significantly: the US, Russia and Mexico. Obviously the proximity
to Texas was a factor in the development of the Mexican oilfields. There was no production
in the Middle East until the 1930s. Target production for the Tula Refinery in 2018 was
just under 0.2 million barrels per day which is below nameplate capacity, but for reasons
including vandalism even that was not attained [6]. A coker is to be installed there to
enable light products to be more plentiful [7]. The refinery receives local crude mixed with
imported light crude. The Minatitlan Refinery was operating at 6% of its nameplate capacity
of 185000 barrels per day for part of 2018 [8]. The refinery has been in existence since
1906. The Cadereyta Oil Refinery, situated near Monterrey, has a capacity 275000 barrels
per day [9] and provides gasoline and diesel to northern Mexico. After major expansion
in 2002 and again in 2007 (it originally opened in 1979) it became the most advanced
120
refinery in Mexico having for example RFCC (residue fluidised catalytic cracking). This term
is explained in the chapter on OPEC countries where two of the refineries in Indonesia are
described. There the comment is made that the difference between FCC and RFCC is ‘one
of degree’. One often learns of ‘upgrades’, ‘revamps’ and ‘modernisations’ of FCC units and
it is reasonable to suggest that these narrow the gap between FCC and RFCC.
The Salamanca Refinery has also been operating at well below nameplate capacity recently
[10]. In Mexico the problem of fuel theft for sale on the black market has been so serious
as to require military intervention [11]. The Francisco I. Madero Refinery, capacity 190000
barrels per day, is an advanced one having for example FCC [12]. It takes Maya (Mexican)
crude oil (API gravity 22 degrees, 920 kg m-3). This is high in sulphur (3.3%) and the
refinery practices catalytic desulphurisation of gasoline. This works by hydrodesulphurisation,
as described for diesel from the Delek Tyler Refinery in the previous chapter. Zeolite based
catalysts are used in the desulphurisation of gasoline. As well as MTBE octane enhancer,
the Francisco I. Madero Refinery produces Tertiary Amyl Methyl Ether (TAME) for the
same use. The structural formula of that is shown below.
TAME.
Mexico imports from the US of the order of 0.4 million barrels per day of ‘finished gasoline’
[13], that is, gasoline ready for distribution to retail outlets. Production of more domestic
gasoline by such measures as FCC/RFCC and use of octane enhancers would reduce that.
The Permex Salina Cruz Refinery, capacity 330000 barrels per day, has recently been taking
some US crude from Bakken [14]. That compensates for the absence from Salina Cruz of
a coking facility to extend straight-run gasoline from heavy Mexican crudes. Bakken crude
has an API gravity of 31.1 degrees, signifying a density of 870 kg m-3 cf. the corresponding
data for Maya crude above. Import of lighter crude for refining is another way in which
the dependence of Mexico on imported gasoline can be reduced. Note that lighter is the
correct descriptor for the Bakken crude. It is a long way from being at densities where light
crude and natural gas condensate are difficult to demarcate. The Cuesta del Plomo-Managua
Refinery in Nicaragua is a very basic one, receiving 20000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil
per day for atmospheric distillation [15].
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5.2 OVERVIEW OF SOUTH AMERICA
La Plata Refinery (YPF, HQ in Buenos Aires). Buenos Aires

Refinery (Raízen, previously Shell). Luján de Cuyo Refinery (YPF).
Esso Campana Refinery (Axion Energy). San Lorenzo Refinery
Argentina.
(Refisan S.A.). Plaza Huincul Refinery (YPF). Campo Duran
Refinery (Refinor). Bahía Blanca Refinery (Trafigura). Avellaneda
Refinery (Destilerías Argentinas de Petróleos, DAPSA).
Gualberto Villarael Cochabamba Refinery (YPFB). Guillermo

Bolivia. Elder Bell Santa Cruz Refinery (YPFB). Carlos Montenegro
Sucre Refinery (Refisur SA). Reficruz Refinería Oro Negro.
REFAP (Petrobras). RECAP (Petrobras). REPLAN (Petrobras).

REVAP (Petrobras). RPBC (Petrobras). REDUC (Petrobras). Lubnor
(Petrobras). REGAP (Petrobras). REPAR (Petrobras). RLAM
Brazil.
(Petrobras). RPCC (Petrobras). RNEST (Petrobras). Refinaria
Riograndense (Ipiringa). Refinaria Manguinhos (Refinaria de Petróleos
de Manguinhos). DAX Oil (Dax-Oil). Univen (Univen Petróleo).
Bio Bio Refinery (Empresa Nacional del Petróleo). Aconcagua

Chile. Concon Refinery (Empresa Nacional del Petróleo).
Gregorio Refinery (Empresa Nacional del Petróleo).
Barrancabermeja Santander Refinery (Empresa

Colombiana de Petróleos S.A. a.k.a. Ecopetrol). Cartagena
Colombia.
Refinery (Reficar S.A.). Apiay Refinery (Ecopetrol). Orito
Refinery (Ecopetrol). Tibu Refinery (Ecopetrol).
Ecuador. An OPEC country. See Chapter 3.
Paraguay. Villa Elisa Refinery (Petropar).
Refinería La Pampilla (Repsol). Refinería de Talara (Petroperú).

Refinería Iquitos Loreto (Petroperú). Refinería Conchan
Peru.
(Petroperú). Refinería Pucallpa (Maple Gas). Refinería El
Milagro (Petroperú). Refinería Shiviyacu (Pluspetrol).
Suriname. Staatsolie Refinery (Staatsolie).
Uruguay. La Teja Montevideo Refinery (ANCAP).
Venezuela. An OPEC country. See Chapter 3.
The YPF La Plata Refinery (first row of the table) has a capacity of 189000 barrels per day
[16]. In service since 1925, it now receives crude oil via the Santa Cruz Refinery in Patagonia.
The Raízen Buenos Aires Refinery, acquired from Shell in 2018, has a capacity of 110000
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barrels per day. It receives exclusively domestic crude. Some of it is from Santa Cruz as with
the YPF La Plata Refinery. Some of it is from Chubut, which is also in Patagonia as is Black
River, where there is tight gas which goes to the Raízen Buenos Aires Refinery. This refinery
also obtains oil from Tierra del Fuego, which is in the region known as the Southern Cone.
Argentina’s oil production is of the order of half a million barrels per day. The YPF Luján
de Cuyo Refinery in the Mendoza Province of Argentina is a deep conversion refinery. It
receives crude from the Mendoza oilfields. Esso Campana Refinery has a capacity of 85000
barrels per day [17]. Expansion of this refinery is under way, and it includes an increase
in FCC capacity [18]. The San Lorenzo Refinery near Buenos Aires receives local crude oil
from Petrobras Argentina who until 2010 owned the refinery [19]. The YPF Plaza Huincul
Refinery in Neuquen, capacity 25000 barrels per day [20], has atmospheric distillation and
reforming and is a hydroskimming refinery. The Refinor Campo Duran Refinery in Salta
has atmospheric distillation, naphtha reforming and vacuum distillation [21]. It receives
oil from northern Argentina. It also receives natural gas, from Argentina and from Bolivia.
Once at the refinery the gas is stripped of heavier components such as butane. The Trafigura
Bahía Blanca Refinery, capacity 30000 barrels per day, receives both domestic and foreign
crudes [22]. The refinery has been operated by Trafigura (HQ in Amsterdam) only since
2018. In that year Trafigura acquired most of the downstream assets of Pampa Energia (HQ
in Buenos Aires). A rise in oil prices between March 2018 and May 2018 [23] was one
Copenhagen

www.come.ku.dk
123
factor in difficulties experienced by Trafigura in its initial operation of the refinery [24]. The
DAPSA Avellaneda Refinery is a very small one at 1300 barrels per day [25]. Avellaneda is
a port in Greater Buenos Aires and is also the site of the much larger Raízen Buenos Aires
Refinery. There is also hydrocarbon storage there on a large scale as well as a nearby terminal
for receiving oil, and the location has become known as Villa Inflamable (yes, one ‘m’)[26].
This is a shantytown where additionally to the obvious fire and explosion hazards there are
issues including river pollution and soil contamination [27].
The YPFB (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos) Gualberto Villarael Cochabamba

Refinery in Bolivia (next row of the table) has a capacity of 28000 barrels per day [28].
Safety improvements have recently been made there [29] and they include the installation of
sprinklers for fire extinguishment. There have also been changes to LPG storage practices at
the refinery and the standard ‘API 2510: Design and Construction of LPG Installations’ has
been applied. In addition to distillate fuels, the refinery produces lubricants in a monthly
quantity approaching 2000 tonnes. The YPFB Guillermo Elder Bell Santa Cruz Refinery has
a capacity of 15000 barrels per day. The two YPFB refineries supply the entire gasoline and
jet fuel needs of the country and some of the diesel. Carlos Montenegro Sucre Refinery was
previously a YPFB refinery [30]. Its capacity is 3000 barrels per day and it supplies fuels
locally. Refinería Oro Negro has a capacity of 2000 barrels per day and produces naphtha,
diesel and residual fuel oil [31].
The REFAP Refinery in Brazil (next row of the table), a.k.a. the Alberto Pasqualini Refinery,
has a capacity of 200000 barrels per day and is therefore very large [32]. Its features
include vacuum distillation and FCC and it produces liquid fuels across the range. Its FCC
unit is equipped with a ‘turbo expander’ (see the discussion of the Sarroch Refinery in
Sardinia). The Petrobras RECAP Refinery a.k.a. the Capuava Refinery has a capacity about
a quarter of that of the REFAP Refinery and 90% of the crude oil it receives is domestic
[33]. The Petrobras REPLAN Refinery a.k.a. the Paulínia Refinery is the largest Petrobras
refinery, having a capacity of 415000 barrels per day [34]. There was a fire at this refinery
in 2018 resulting in reduced output [35]. At the time of the fire Petrobras had sufficient
refined material in stock to sustain supplies at levels before the fire for fifteen days [36].
The Petrobras REVAP Refinery a.k.a. the Henrique Lage Refinery is a large one, having a
capacity of 250000 barrels per day. It receives oil from the Tupi field offshore Brazil where
production is at an FPSO.
The Petrobras RPBC Refinery a.k.a. the Presidente Bernardes Refinery has a capacity of
178000 barrels per day [37]. Its products include Formula 1 gasoline. Petrobras has performed
R&D into fuels and lubricants for F1 racing and they have been used by the McLaren F1
team [38]. The Petrobras REDUC Refinery a.k.a. the Duque de Caxias Oil Refinery has
a capacity of 230000 barrels per day [39]. The refinery receives landfill gas [40] as part of
124
its own fuel requirement. The combustible component of landfill gas is methane which is
‘carbon neutral by paternity’ being formed in the landfill from decomposition of cellulose.
Its use at the refinery will engender carbon credits. (Methane in natural gas is not of course
carbon neutral.) The Petrobras Lubnor (Lubrificantes e Derivados do Nordeste) Refinery is a
specialist one, producing asphalt, lubricants and hydraulic fluids [41]. Accordingly the crudes
it receives are heavy. They come from two fields offshore Brazil, Espírito Santo and Ceará.
The Petrobras REGAP Refinery, a.k.a. the Gabriel Passos Refinery, having expanded since
its commissioning in 1968, now has a capacity of 150000 barrels per day [42]. It receives
crude oil from the Campos Basin via Cabiúnas terminal and from the Marlim offshore field
[43]. The Petrobras REPAR Refinery a.k.a. the Presidente Vargas Refinery has a capacity >
200000 barrels per day [44]. In July 2000 there was a spill of about 25000 barrels of crude
oil from this refinery [45]. Two rivers were impacted and fish life in them was monitored
for some months afterwards. The rivers were in a polluted state before the oil spill, and
the conclusion was that possible effects of the oil spill could not be distinguished from
the effects of the pre-existing pollution. The RLAM Refinery a.k.a. the Landulpho Alves
Refinery was the first in Brazil, entering service almost 70 years ago. Its products include
food-grade paraffin wax [46]. In January 2015 there was an explosion at this refinery in
which three workers were injured [47]. In 2014 oil prices dropped dramatically [48] and
it was because oil was cheap that all of the Petrobras refineries were in early 2015 working
at close to nameplate capacity [49].


125
The Petrobras RPCC Refinery a.k.a. the Potiguar Clara Camarão Refinery has a capacity of
about 37000 barrels per day [50]. Opened in October 2009, the refinery did not produce
gasoline until a year later by which time it had been equipped to produce gasoline other
than straight-run [51]. The Petrobras RNEST Refinery a.k.a. the Abreu e Lima Refinery
came into being in Q4 2014 and at that stage was single-train, although it was expanded
to dual-train [52] and attained a capacity of 230000 barrels per day. It is set up to produce
a preponderance of diesel and no gasoline although there is some naphtha. Clearly this
requires suitable choice of crude, and the refinery receives crude oil of 16 degrees API
(960 kg m-3) from the Marlim field [53]. Such a dense crude would be expected to be
productive of heavier distillate.
The Riograndense Refinery produces gasoline, diesel, residual fuel oil and LPG [54]. Mineral
turpentine and bunker fuel also come within its wide product range [55] . The former can
be broadly identified with the naphtha fraction. The refinery (‘refineria’ in Portuguese) at
Manguihos in Rio de Janeiro has a capacity of 15000 barrels per day [56]. Shortly before
Christmas in 2018 there was a fire there caused by explosion of a tanker truck [57]. Several
other road tankers docked at the refinery were destroyed (see plate 5.1) but spread to
stationary storage tanks at the refinery was prevented. There were no injuries.
Plate 5.1. Fire at the refinery at Manguiho, Rio de Janeiro in December 2018. The words ‘água potável’ on the
white tanker in the foreground mean ‘potable water’.
Image taken from: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fire-brought-under-control-brazils-manguinhos-
refinery-180647265.html
126
The DAX-Oil Refinery is in Bahia on the Atlantic coast of Brazil [58]. It produces gasoline,
diesel (some of it for maritime use), solvents and paraffin wax. Not being part of Petrobras,
it is described as being a ‘private refinery’. The same is true of the Univen Petróleo Refinery
which has a capacity of 6900 barrels per day [59].
The Bio Bio Refinery in Chile (next row of the table), operated by the state owned Empresa
Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP), has a capacity of 116000 barrels per day of crude oil [60].
The name of the refinery originates from the Bio Bio Region of Chile where it is located.
The ENAP Aconcagua Concon Refinery has a capacity of 100000 barrels per day [61]. The
refinery was impacted by an earthquake in 2017. Shortly afterwards a bulletin was released
by the refinery operator which said ‘It should be remembered that during this stage [starting
up after the earthquake] larger torches than usual could be produced. These constitute a
security system of the refinery and should not generate concern in the community’. That
means that larger-than-usual amounts of hydrocarbon inventory were being diverted to
the flares (‘torches’) and that is exactly what was happening at the refinery at the Lima
Refinery in Ohio in early 2018 as explained in Chapter 4. The ENAP Gregorio Refinery
in southern Chile has a capacity of 35000 barrels of crude oil per day [62]. Summation
of the capacities of the three refineries in Chile gives a national refining capacity of 0.25
million barrels per day.
The Barrancabermeja Santander Refinery in Colombia (next row of the table) is a large
one, capacity 250000 barrels per day, and its product range is very wide [63]. The Reficar
Cartagena Refinery has a capacity of 80000 barrels per day [64] 85% of which oil is domestic,
the balance imported. Colombia began importing oil when this refinery began operations
in 2015/2016. The port of Coveñas on the Colombian coast can admit oil tankers in the
Suezmax category [65] (see the discussion of the oil terminal at Immingham in England).
The other three refineries in Colombia, all very small, will be dealt with together. They are
all Ecopetrol refineries.
Apiay Refinery. 2500 barrels per day [66].
Orito Refinery. 1800 barrels per day [67].
Tibu Refinery. 1800 barrels per day [68].
In general refineries of this sort of size, unless they are specialist refineries, produce fractions
from atmospheric distillation and residue derived material such as asphalt. This view can be
checked against Apiay, where the products are gasoline, diesel and asphalt [66]. The Villa
Elisa Refinery, the only refinery in Paraguay, has a capacity of 7500 barrels per day [69].
There is no ‘domestic oil’ to refine in Paraguay.
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The Refinería La Pampilla in Peru (next row of the table), capacity 117000 barrels per day
[70], produces half the distillate fuel used in Peru. Refinería de Talara is moderately large,
having a capacity of 65000 barrels per day [71]. Expansion to 95000 barrels per day is
expected [72]. This will obviously require expansion to atmospheric distillation. As a point
of terminology we note that Talara Refinery is described [73] as having a ‘topping unit’ at
which fractionation takes place. Heavy material at Talara is cracked to make lighter material,
so this is without doubt a conversion refinery. A conversion refinery has a topping unit
within it as indeed does a hydroskimming refinery. This can be linked to the description
of the BP Prudhoe Bay Refinery in an earlier chapter.
There have been financial issues with the Talara expansion, and it was announced in March
2019 that in the near future Talara Refinery would cease operations for about a year [74].
Once it resumes operations it will rely on crude oil from Ecuador and Colombia [75]. It
previously used crude oil obtained from oil fields within the ‘Peruvian Amazon’ owned by
Petroperú [76]. Iquitos Loreto Refinery in Iquitos City (population > 0.4 million) is situated
within the Amazon rainforest. During the period of inactivity of Talara its workload will be
taken up by the Petroperú Conchan Refinery. The Maple Gas Pucallpa Refinery (owned by
Petroperú and operated by Maple Gas) also has an Amazon location. It receives crude from
the Ganso Azul oil field [77], which supplies crude oil to WW2 USA [78]. Pucallpa is a
small refinery (3250 barrels per day) and supplies refined products to the local area. Petroperú


128
Refinería El Milagro and Pluspetrol Refinería Shiviyacu have capacities of respectively 1700
and 5200 barrels per day [79].
Suriname, population ~ half a million, is the smallest sovereign state in South America and
has an Atlantic coast. It produces 6 million barrels of oil per day at the Tambaredjo oil field.
Crude from there is heavy (16 degrees API) [80] and is called Saramacca Crude. Staatsolie
(HQ in Flora, Suriname) began oil production there in 1980, and the same organisation
operates the refinery referred to in the table. It has a capacity of 15000 barrels per day and
produces distillate fuels as well as residual fuel oil [81]. Sulphur removed is converted in situ
into sulphuric acid. La Teja Montevideo Refinery in Uruguay is of capacity 50000 barrels
per day [82]. Its products range from LPG to asphalt and its Nelson complexity index is
8.3 [83]. Those figures lead to an EDC (see discussion of the Carson Refinery) of 0.42
million barrels per day, the value given in [83]. This EDC is within the range of capacities
of refineries in service: that given in Chapter 4 for the Carson Refinery (3.5 million barrels
per day) is outside the range by about a factor of two.
5.3 OVERVIEW OF THE CARIBBEAN

Caribbean locations which are scenes of oil refining are listed in the table below, which is
followed by comments.
Antigua. Refining over the period 1961-1982.
Barbados. A Mobil refinery up to 1998 [85].
Curaçao. Isla Refinery (PDVSA).
Honduras (Puerto Cortes). Puerto Cortes Refinery (Texaco).
Jamaica. Kingston Refinery (PetroJam & PDVSA).
Fort de France Refinery (Société Anonyme

Martinique.
de la Raffinerie des Antilles a.k.a.SARA).
It has been the practice in the book to include only currently operating refineries and not
ones now out of service, but an exception has been made for Antigua and Barbados. The
refinery in Antigua was operated by the West Indies Oil Company [84] and there is now
an oil terminal at the site of the former refinery. Oil produced in Barbados (~ 0.4 million
barrels per year) is now sent to T&T for refining.
129
The Isla Refinery (third row of the table) has a capacity of 335000 barrels per day. That
Curaçao, population 160000, should have a refinery this large is at first consideration
very surprising. In fact refining at Curaçao began in 1918 when it received oil from Lake
Maracaibo [86]. The existence of a refinery of such large capacity at a location of such small
population leads to the obvious conclusion that nearly all of its products are exported. This
is so: >90% of the products are exported [87]. Destinations include Europe, Africa and
(increasingly) the Far East. The refinery is the biggest employer in Curaçao, and to view
the refining as ‘export of a service’ would be quite sound.
Puerto Cortes is at the Caribbean coast of Honduras and might have been appropriately
covered in the section on Central America. The fact that the only refinery in Honduras
has this Caribbean setting has led to a decision to discuss it alongside other refineries in
the Caribbean. The refinery Puerto Cortes in receives 14000 barrels per day of oil from
Venezuela [88]. Some is used in Honduras and some in other locations in the region. The
refinery in Kingston Jamaica (next row of the table) is a hydroskimming refinery poised for
upgrading to a conversion refinery [89]. The Fort de France Refinery in Martinique (next
row of the table) has a capacity of 16000 barrels per day and is set up for ‘conversion’,
there being cracking [90]. It receives crude from Venezuela and also from the North Sea.
5.4 FURTHER COMMENTS

The order of the chapters is such that countries having entered the oil industry early are
treated first. The US and Mexico have featured in the chapter and Poland in the previous
one. Russia logically comes next and accordingly the next chapter will be concerned with
the Former Soviet Union.
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vargas-repar.htm
[45] https://ioscproceedings.org/doi/abs/10.7901/2169-3358-2003-1-971
132
[46] http://www.petrobras.com.br/en/our-activities/main-operations/refineries/landulpho-
alves-rlam.htm
[47] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-petrobras-refinery-idUSKBN0KS1EI20150119
[48] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/030315/why-did-oil-prices-drop-so-much-2014.
asp
[49] http://www.petrobras.com.br/en/our-activities/main-operations/refineries/potiguar-
clara-camarao.htm
[50] https://www.bnamericas.com/company-profile/en/refineria-potiguar-clara-camarao-
rpcc-rpcc
[51] http://www.petrobras.com.br/en/our-activities/main-operations/refineries/abreu-e-lima-
refinery.htm
[52] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/abreue-lima-refinery/
[53] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/45-brazil/oil-refining/72-
riograndense-rio-grande-oil-refinery
[55] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/45-brazil/oil-refining/58-manguinhos-
rio-de-janeiro-oil-refinery
[56] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6505131/Fire-brought-control-Brazils-
Manguinhos-refinery.html
[57] http://dax-oil.com/
[58] https://www.isc.hbs.edu/resources/courses/moc-course-at-harvard/Documents/pdf/
student-projects/Brazil_Petrochemical_2017.pdf
[59] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/04/enap-lets-contract-for-bio-bio-refinery.html
[60] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/aconcagua-concon-refinery
[61] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/gregorio-refinery
[62] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/63-colombia/oil-refining/153-
ecopetrol-barrancabermeja-oil-refinery
[63] https://www.oilandgasadvancement.com/projects/refineria-de-cartagena-reficar-refinery-
expansion-colombia/
[64] https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/051716-colombian-
port-of-covenas-imports-first-crude-cargo-source
ecopetrol-apiay-oil-refinery
ecopetrol-orito-oil-refinery
[67] https://miskolc.jimdo.com/oil-world-markets/oil-refinery-list/latin-america/
[68] https://www.revolvy.com/page/Energy-in-Paraguay
[69] https://www.repsol.com/es/conocenos/donde-trabajamos/refineria-pampilla/index.cshtml
[70] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/190-peru/oil-refining/477-
petroperu-talara-oil-refinery
133
[71] https://www.bus-ex.com/article/petroperú’s-talara-refinery-showing-expansion-can-be-
sustainable
[72] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/talara-refinery-modernisation/
[73] https://uk.reuters.com/article/peru-oil/peru-to-shutter-talara-oil-refinery-for-a-year-in-
november-petroperu-idUKL1N2161TH
[74] https://invertalia.net/news/the-talara-refinery-will-be-in-search-of-heavy-crude-in-the-
region-6996
[75] https://www.yjc.ir/en/news/32303/petroperu-dives-deeper-into-debt-as-it-pushes-
controversial-refinery-upgrade
[76] https://www.britannica.com/place/Pucallpa
[77] https://www.nytimes.com/1941/11/10/archives/peruvian-oil-field-to-sell-in-brazil-new-
ganso-azul-concession-to.html
[78] Peru Mineral & Mining Sector Investment and Business Guide USA International
Business Publications (2007) accessible online as an e-book.
[79] https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2016/08/petroleum-a-new-economic-boost-for-suriname
[80] https://www.staatsolie.com/en/about-us/
[81] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/260-uruguay/oil-refining/652-
ancap-la-teja-oil-refinery
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134
[82] http://svmesa.com/ancap-refinery-production-accounting-7-year-case%20study-benefits-
user-experience.php
[83] https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/west-indies-oil-refinery/view/google/
[84] http://www.energy.gov.bb/web/history-of-hydrocarbon-production-in-barbados
[85] http://www.refineriaisla.com/main/our-history/
[86] http://www.refineriaisla.com/main/products-markets/#local-market
[87] Honduras Country Study Guide USA (PRD) International Business Publications
(2003) accessible online as an e-book.
[88] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/04/jamaica-s-sole-refinery-due-upgrade-expansion.html
[89] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/fort-de-france-refinery
135
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The Former Soviet Union
6 THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
6.1 OVERVIEW BY COUNTRY

Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are each part of the of the FSU but also of the EU, and so
have been covered previously.
Haydar Aliyev Refinery (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan.
Republic a.k.a. SOCAR). Azerneftyag Refinery (SOCAR).
Belarus. Mozyr Refinery (Slavneft). Novopolotsk Refinery (Naftan).
Seidi Refinery (State owned). Turkmenbashi

Turkmenistan.
Refinery (Turkmen Petroleum).
European Russia: Syzran Refinery (Rosneft). Novokuibyshevsk

Refinery (Rosneft). Kuibyshev Oil Refinery (Rosneft).
Salavatnefteorgsintez Refinery (Gazprom, Salavat). Volgograd
Refinery (LUKOIL). Ukhta Refinery (LUKOIL). Perm Refinery (LUKOIL).
NORSI-oil (LUKOIL, Kstovo). Ryazan Refinery (Rosneft). Orsk
Refinery (Russneft). Saratov Refinery (Rosneft). Moscow Refinery
(Gazprom Neft). Kirishi Refinery (Surgutneftegas). YANOS Yaroslavl
Russia.
Refinery (Slavneft). Krasnodar Refinery (Russneft). Tuapse Refinery
(Rosneft). Nizhnekamsk Refinery (TAIF).Ufa Refinery (Bashneft).
Novo-Ufa Refinery (Bashneft). Ufaneftekhim Refinery (Bashneft).
Asian Russia: Achinsk Refinery (Rosneft). Khabarovsk Refinery

(Alliance). Komsomolsk Refinery (Rosneft). Nizhnevartovsk
Refinery (Rosneft).Omsk Oil Refinery (Gazprom Neft).
Odessa Refinery (LUKOIL). LINOS Refinery (TNK-BP). Kherson

Ukraine. Refinery (Alliance). Kremenchuk Refinery (Ukrtatnafta). Drogobych
Refinery (Pryvat). Neftekhimik Prikarpatya Nadvirna Refinery.
Shymkent Refinery (PetroKazakhstan). Pavlodar Refinery

Kazakhstan.
(KazMunayGas). Atyrau Refinery (KazMunayGas).
Alphabetically, Armenia would have occupied the first row of the above table. There is no
oil refining there, and refined products are imported from neighbouring Iran[1]. Other FSU
states having no refining capacity in 2019 are Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan. Most of these have refineries ‘on the drawing board’.
136
The SOCAR Haydar Aliyev Refinery is in Baku, a city having a long association with oil
production. The refinery receives crude oil locally. Some of its refined products are used
in Azerbaijan and some are exported [2]. The Azerneftyag Refinery also in Baku is a large
one (230000 barrels per day) and an old one (entered service 1930). It is expected to
close in 2021 [3]. That a major refinery in the Ukraine obtains some of its crude oil from
Azerbaijan is reported later in the chapter. The Mozyr Refinery in Belarus (next row of the
table) has a capacity of 95000 barrels per day [4]. Like the Bratislava Refinery in Slovakia
and the Schwedt Refinery in Germany discussed in Chapter 2 it receives Urals crude via the
Druzhba pipeline. It also receives crude from Azerbaijan and from Venezuela. Novopolotsk
Refinery also receives crude via the Druzhba pipeline [5]. Hydrocracking there will enable
a conversion of 90% to be realised. That can be compared with the performance of the
TOTAL Antwerp Refinery given in Chapter 1. The Seidi Refinery in Turkmenistan has a
capacity of 120500 barrels per day [6]. It long predates Perestroika and once relied entirely
on oil from Russia. More recently it has received oil from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but
it now receives only domestic oil. The Turkmenbashi Refinery in the same country has
about the same capacity as Seidi [7]. It is linked by pipeline to the Nebit-Dag oil field and
to the Goturdepe oil field. The latter has wells in shallow water in the Caspian Sea about
a mile from the coast [8]. The refinery itself is at the Caspian coast.
Moving on to the next row we first note that European Russia and Asian Russia together
comprise the Federation of Russia, or simply Russia. The Rosneft Syzran Refinery has a
capacity of approximately 160000 barrels per day [9]. Originally a hydroskimming refinery,
it later introduced cracking and so became a conversion refinery. It receives crude oil from
diverse domestic sources including Siberia and southern regions of Russia close to the
Kazakhstan border. The Rosneft Novokuibyshevsk Refinery has a capacity 150000 barrels per
day [10]. Hydrocracking was recently introduced there as a way of improving the conversion
depth [11]. The Kuibyshev Oil Refinery (also Rosneft) gives its 2014 performance figures
as 6.7 million tons of oil processed with a refining depth of 60.6% [12] indicating 4.1
million tonnes (about 30 million barrels) of distillate plus distillate equivalent. The LUKOIL
Volgograd Refinery has a capacity of 225000 barrels per day and is a deep conversion refinery
[13]. It receives domestic crude by pipeline and product diesel is taken from the refinery
to the market at a rate of 3 million tonnes per year through a pipeline 350 mm diameter
[14]. A calculation like that in Chapter 4 for the Pascagoula Refinery in Mississippi gives
a flow speed of 1 m s-1 and (using a value of 2 × 10-6 m2s-1 for the kinematic viscosity) a
Reynolds number of 2 × 105. The Ukhta Refinery is a conversion refinery having steadily
increased its conversion depth, for example by almost 5% in 2017 [15]. Its owner LUKOIL
is intending to increase investment in upstream activity and will possibly sell the refinery
in order to service the investment [16]. The LUKOIL Perm Refinery has a capacity of 13.1
137
million tonnes per year and a Nelson complexity index of 9.4 (2017 figures) [17]. Invoking
again (see Chapter 3) the ‘7 barrel per metric tonne rule’, the equivalent distillation capacity
(EDC) is then:
(13.1 × 106/365) × 7 barrels per day × 9.4 = 2.4 million barrels per day
which is not hugely different from that calculated for the Carson Refinery in an earlier
chapter. It means that the Perm Refinery would require the same resources for operation
as a topping refinery producing 2.4 million barrels per day.
The NORSI-oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast has a capacity of 340000 barrels per
day [18]. It has FCC and achieves a refining depth of 65%. It produces propylene which
goes on to polymerisation. The Rosneft Ryazan Refinery has a capacity of 340000 barrels
per day and a Nelson complexity index of 5.5 [19], therefore an EDC of 1.9 million barrels
per day. The Rosneft Saratov Refinery, has been in service since 1934. It has a capacity of
134000 barrels per day [20] with good conversion which is attributed partly to visbreaking,
a term which was applied in Chapter 3 to the Polk Refinery in Poland. The motive for
visbreaking might not be viscosity reduction but production of lighter material from
heavier, and a reasonable definition of refinery visbreaking would be residuum conversion
by thermal, not catalytic, cracking. The Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery has a capacity of
230000 barrels per day [21]. Plate 6.1 below shows an image of the refinery. This refinery
has recently had significant additions to its facilities and capabilities [22]. The principles
of hydrodesulphurisation were discussed in Chapter 4 with the Delek Tyler Refinery as an
example. The Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery has been equipped with hydrodesulphurisation
which will enable it to produce diesel compliant with EU standards for sulphur content.
In winter use diesel can be susceptible to particle deposition, a point touched on in the
discussion of the Silver Eagle Refining Woods Cross Refinery in Utah. The Gazprom Neft
Moscow Refinery has the means of preventing this by de-waxing the crude oil.
138
Plate 6.1. View of the Gazprom Neft Moscow Refinery.

139
The Kirishi Refinery owned by Surgutneftegas is near St. Petersburg and has a capacity of
366000 barrels per day [23]. The location on the Baltic coast is favourable for the export of
refined products [24]. There is also Kirishi-2 Oil Refinery which came into operation only
in 2017 and is a deep conversion refinery [25]. The YANOS Yaroslavl Refinery owned by
Slavneft has a capacity of 280000 barrels per day and is a conversion refinery, having both
catalytic cracking and thermal (visbreaking) [26]. One of its specialisms is bitumen, used
with asphalt as a substance for road construction. The standards body Gosudarstvennyy
Standart (GOST, HQ in Moscow) have issued ‘GOST 33133-2014 Automobile roads of
general use. Viscous road petroleum bitumens’. Bitumen from YANOS Yaroslavl Refinery
is complaint with this, and its use is believed to have had a major positive effect on road
surface durability [27]. Here again (see the comments re the Federated Co-operatives CCRL
Refinery in Saskatchewan) the precise meaning of ‘bitumen’ in a particular application of
the term has to be ascertained.
The Russneft (not the same as Rosneft) Krasnodar Refinery is the Russian refinery having
been in operation the longest: it opened in 1911, and its marketable products were gasoline
and kerosene, almost all of which were exported [28]. The Rosneft Tuapse Refinery has also
been in service a very long time, actually since 1929 [29]. Located at the Black Sea coast,
it has undergone recent modernisation and has become a conversion refinery [30]. The
Rosneft Tuapse Refinery is the only Russian oil refinery at the Black Sea coast. It is reported
in Chapter 2 that the Petromidia Constanţa Refinery in Romania is at the Black Sea coast.
The Nizhnekamsk Refinery owned by TAIF (ТАИФ) has a capacity of 140000 barrels per
day [31] and is a deep conversion refinery. It receives oil locally from Tatarstan, which also
supplies some crude oil to the Ukraine. The Bashneft (Башнефти) Refinery in Ufa, in
service since 1937, was in 2016 the scene of a fire in which eight persons died [32]. The
fire was at the hydrocracker. The Bashneft Novo-Ufa Refinery receives from the Volga-Urals
oil fields [33]. Oil from these fields is heavy and for refining is sometimes blended with
lighter crude from West Siberia [34]. The Bashneft Ufaneftekhim Refinery has a capacity of
190000 barrels per day and a Nelson complexity index of 8.41 [35]. That gives an EDC of
1.6 million barrels per day, fairly close to that of the Rosneft Ryazan Refinery given earlier
in this chapter and about half of that for the Terero Carson Refinery given in Chapter 3.
Ufaneftekhim Refinery takes crude oil from West Siberia and there is some blending with
condensate. Its EDC is within the range of capacities of refineries in operation.
The Rosneft Achinsk Refinery has a Siberian location and its capacity is 150000 barrels
per day [36]. It specialises in automotive fuels and jet fuel and accordingly is equipped for
hydrocracking. It takes crude oil from West Siberia. Temperatures at the location of the
refinery sometimes descend as low as -10oC. This is milder than Sakhalin Island, where
condensate is refined in quantities as high as 60000 barrels per day [37]. The Alliance
140
Khabarovsk Refinery has a capacity of 70000 barrels per day and its products range from
LPG to asphalt [38]. Some of the refined products go to Vladivostok for export [39]. In
2017 there were allegations of supply of petroleum products from the refinery to North
Korea in contravention of sanctions [40]. Komsomolsk Refinery receives crude oil from
West Siberia and from Sakhalin [41]. Of capacity 150000 barrels per day, the refinery has
a wide range of products and they include ‘Mazut (мазут) 40’, a fuel oil specifications of
which are set by GOST 10585-2013 ‘Mazut Petroleum fuel: specifications’ [42]. See also
the description in Chapter 7 of the Ghazanfar Oil Refinery in Afghanistan.
The Rosnfet Nizhnevartovsk Refinery, also in Siberia, has a capacity of 26000 barrels per day.
Rosneft themselves describe it as a ‘mini-refinery’ [43]. The Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery
(see plate 6.2 below) has a capacity of 0.4 million barrels per day and is a conversion refinery
[44]. Petroleum coke from the refinery is used to make electrodes (see also the discussion
of the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery near New Orleans in Chapter 3).
Plate 6.2. The Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery in Siberia.

Moving on to the Ukraine (next row of the table), the LUKOIL Odessa Refinery is a small
one, capacity ~ 55000 barrels per day and its Nelson complexity index 3.9 [45]. Its EDC is
0.21 million barrels per day. The LUKOIL Odessa Refinery has reforming, hydrogenation
and visbreaking. That it requires the resources of a topping refinery processing four times
the amount of crude it receives, the meaning of the EDC, is not at all counterintuitive. At
the time of writing this chapter this refinery is closed for modernisation [46] and it was in
mothballed status for some time before that, so these figures probably need reviewing. TNK-
BP LINOS Refinery has a capacity of 0.3 million barrels per day and is a major producer
of gasoline for the Ukraine [46]. The refinery at Kherson is also undergoing modernisation
with a view to decommissioning. It has not produced since 2005, though it has been used
in hydrocarbon storage more recently than that [47].
141
The refinery at Kremenchuk is a large one, 372000 barrels per day [48]. It receives oil
from a number of sources including, fairly recently, crude of API gravity 35.3 degrees from
Azerbaijan [49]. Other supplies come from Tatarstan as noted above and from Kazakhstan,
and there is some refining of domestic crude. The refinery is in central Ukraine and was
so to speak insulated from the 2013 Ukrainian crisis which was in the east of the country.
The refinery continued to receive domestic oil. The Pryvat Drogobych Refinery, nameplate
capacity 40000 barrels per day, is also out of service at present [50]. Neftekhimik Prikarpatya
Nadvirna Refinery has a nameplate capacity of 39000 barrels per day [51]. It receives Russian
Export Blend (REB) crude oil, specifications for which were given in Chapter 2 when the
Porvoo Refinery in Finland was under discussion. It also receives crude from Azerbaijan.
The current level of oil refining in the Ukraine is about 10% of the summed nameplate
capacities of all of its refineries [52]. Crude oil production in the Ukraine is only of the
order of 30000 barrels per day [53] so there is strong dependence on imported crude oil.
The reliability of imported oil from Russia has been adversely affected by the 2013 crisis
previously referred to. This is probably the principal factor in the dismal state of the oil
refining industry in the Ukraine at present.
The Wake
the only emission we want to leave behind
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6JGFGUKIPQHGEQHTKGPFN[OCTKPGRQYGTCPFRTQRWNUKQPUQNWVKQPUKUETWEKCNHQT/#0&KGUGN6WTDQ
2QYGTEQORGVGPEKGUCTGQHHGTGFYKVJVJGYQTNFoUNCTIGUVGPIKPGRTQITCOOGsJCXKPIQWVRWVUURCPPKPI
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142
The Shymkent Refinery in Kazakhstan has a capacity of 105000 barrels per day [54]. It
has vacuum distillation and coking, and is therefore a conversion refinery. It uses domestic
oil from the Kumkol field. The Pavlodar Refinery in the same country has a capacity of
150000 barrels per day and is also a conversion refinery [55]. It receives crude oil from
Russia. There is no pipeline link from this refinery to a source of domestic oil. The Atyrau
Refinery in western Kazakhstan uses only domestic oil, and is a conversion refinery [56].
6.2 FURTHER REMARKS

As already noted, the largest oil refinery in the world is in India. Plate 6.3 shows refining
capacities – summations of nameplate capacities – for countries of the FSU. The dominance
of Russia is clear and unsurprising. Russia is the third largest oil refining country in the
world. The largest is the US, the second largest is China and the fourth largest is Japan. Oil
refining in the US is the subject of Chapter 3. India will feature in Chapter 7 and China
and Japan in Chapter 8.
Plate 6.3. Refining capacity trends in the FSU.

Image taken from: http://www.turnermason.com/index.php/start-me-up-refinery-construction-outlook-part-4-
latin-america-2/
143
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144
TuapseRefinery/
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[42] https://www.worldoiltraders.com/m100-fuel-oil-gost-10585-75-99-2013/
[43] https://www.rosneft.com/about/Rosneft_today/
[44] https://www.gazprom-neft.com/company/business/oil-refining/omsk-refinery/
[45] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/odessarefinery/
[46] www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=117
[47] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/258-ukraine/oil-refining/646alliance-
kherson-oil-refinery
[48] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/kremenchuk-refinery
[49] http://integrumventures.com/en/newsview/kremenchugskiy_npz_planiruet_uvelichit_
pererabotku_v_2017_godu_na_41
[50] https://ua-energy.org/en/posts/17-07-2018-1bd19030-c48c-4cb0-9dfa-11af41d75944
[51] http://oilxoil.blogspot.com/p/refinary.html
[52] https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Who-Will-Save-Ukraines-Dying-Refineries.html
[53] https://tradingeconomics.com/ukraine/crude-oil-production
[54] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/shymkent-refinery
[55] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/pavlodar-refinery
[56] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/atyrau-refinery
145
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The Indian Subcontinent
7 THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT
7.1 INTRODUCTION
These countries are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, and Maldives.
There is no oil refining in Nepal, Bhutan or Maldives. However, Afghanistan will also be
included in this chapter. Sometimes the names of the refineries and of the companies have
been used interchangeably.
7.2 THE INDIAN REFINERIES CLASSIFIED BY LOCATION

Information is given in the table below, which is followed by comments.
Andhra Pradesh. Visakhapatnam Refinery (HPCL). Tatipaka Refinery (ONGC).
Bongaigaon Refinery (IOC). Digboi Refinery (IOC).

Assam.
Guwahati Refinery (IOC). Numaligarh Refinery (NRL)
Bihar. Barauni Refinery (IOC).
Essar Refinery (Essar Oil). Gujarat Refinery (IOCL).

Gujarat.
Jamnagar Refinery (Reliance Industries)*.
Haryana. Panipat Refinery (IOC).
Jharkhand. Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) Oil Refinery.
Karnataka. Mangalore Refinery (MRPL).
Kerala. Kochi Refinery (BPCL).
Madhya Pradesh. Bina (BORL, Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd.).
Maharashtra. Mumbai Refinery (HPCL). Mumbai Refinery (BPCL).
Odisha. Paradip Refinery (IOC).
Punjab. Guru Gobind Singh Refinery (HPCL).
Manali Refinery (CPCL). Nagapattnam Refinery

Tamil Nadu.
(CPCL). Cuddalore Refinery (NOCL).
Uttar Pradesh. Mathura Refinery (IOC).
West Bengal. Haldia Refinery (IOC).
* The largest oil refinery in the world.
146
The HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, HQ in Mumbai) Visakhapatnam

Refinery has a capacity of 160000 barrels per day [1]. In 2016 approval for modernisation
was obtained [2] which will almost double that. Modernisation will include use of the Penex™
process which has some similarity to the Detal-Plus™ process which was discussed with
reference to Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery in Europe. Both enable linear alkylbenzenes to be
produced. Those at Gibraltar-San Roque are used to make detergents: those at Visakhapatnam
will be incorporated into gasoline. Another innovation at the Visakhapatnam Refinery will
be a slurry hydrocracker unit (SHCU). The ‘slurry’ comprises the vacuum residue plus solid
catalyst particles and the process converts vacuum residue to light material. That is clearly
helpful in achieving a good refinery depth. The operator HPLC, which also has a refinery
in Mumbai to be described below, purchases both domestic and imported crude oil [3]. The
ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, HQ in Gujurat) Tatipaka Refinery is a very small
one, 1300 barrels of crude oil per day [4], and is described in [5] as a ‘mini-refinery’. It came
into existence as a result of a contingency, to take some of the crude oil originally intended
for Visakhapatnam [6]. Its diversion to another major refinery would have necessitated long
tanker journeys. Accordingly the refinery has a fairly conventional product range in contrast
to some very small refineries which are focused on such things as base oils.
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147
The IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) Bongaigaon Refinery has a capacity of ~ 0.05 million
barrels per day, and this is set to double [7]. It uses oil from Assam. This oil was discovered
in the 1960s and was sent to the Barauni Refinery in Bihar (next row of the table) for
processing until the Bongaigaon Refinery came into being. Barauni Refinery, also IOC,
has a capacity of 115000 barrels per day [8]. It receives imported crude oil entirely, from
countries including Nigeria and Iraq which is taken initially to the terminal at Paradip.
The Essar Refinery in Gujurat has a capacity of 200000 barrels per day [9]. Its west coast
location makes it suitable for importing Middle East crude oil. The IOCL Gujarat Refinery
has a capacity of > 0.25 million barrels per day and has FCC, hydrocracking and diesel
hydrodesulphurisation [10]. Like for example the Visakhapatnam Refinery, it makes linear
alkylbenzenes. It uses local and imported crudes. The Digboi Refinery is the oldest refinery
in India, having been set up in 1901 [11]. In 2001 a postage stamp was issued to mark
the centenary and this is shown in Plate 7.1 below. Its capacity is 13000 barrels per day.
It receives local crude oil and produces distillate fuels across the boiling range as well as
wax. The refinery is a long way from being moribund and its future is assured, although
expansion is not seen as being viable.
Plate 7.1. Postage stamp marking the centenary of the Digboi Refinery.
Image taken from: http://www.phila-art.com/product/india-2001-digboi-
refinery-100-years-1v-stamp/
As stated in a footnote to the table, the Jamnagar Refinery, owned by Reliance Industries,
is the largest oil refinery in the world. Its capacity is 1.24 million barrels per day and it is
a double-train refinery. Plate 7.2. below shows a view of the refinery.
148
Plate 7.2. The Jamnagar Refinery in India.

Image taken from: https://www.livemint.com/Companies/bfjyqT9tUhqWajPWKJco6K/Reliance-plans-expanding-
worlds-largest-refinery-complex-R.html
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149
The Nelson complexity index of the Jamnagar Refinery has been estimated as 14.0 [12]
meaning that it requires the resources of a notional topping refinery processing 17.4 million
barrels of crude oil per day, i.e. the EDC is 17.4 million barrels per day. Possibly relevant to
an interpretation of that is the fact that construction costs were unexpectedly low [13]. The
refinery was opened in 1999, and about a decade later a new refinery was built adjacent to
it. These operate together and constitute the ‘Jamnagar Refinery’. Even so, the term ‘pair of
refineries’ is sometimes applied to it [14]. Additionally to domestic crude oil, the Jamnagar
Refinery receives oil from countries including the US, Mexico, Venezuela and Iran [15].
It is because of Jamnagar that India is a net exporter of refined petroleum products. Its
gasoline and diesel go chiefly to the US and Europe.
If this refinery was engaged in atmospheric distillation only its EDC would be 1.24 million
barrels per day, that is, its capacity × unity. The fact the EDC is over an order of magnitude
higher than that signifies many further processes. They include FCC and hydrotreatment. The
refinery also has ‘petcoke gasification’, a self-explanatory term meaning that the petroleum
coke is steam gasified to make a fuel gas [16]. Petcoke is itself a valuable product but,
depending on natural gas prices, it is sometimes more advantageous to gasify it. There is
a manufacturing division at the Jamnagar location (‘hub’ [17]) where polypropylene and
polyethylene are made in annual amounts of the order of half a million tonnes [18]. Paraxylene
is also made at Jamnagar. That involves removal of all of the aromatic C8 compounds – the
three isomers of xylene as well as ethylbenzene – from naphtha and their catalytic reforming
[19]. The paraxylene is exported.
The Panipat Refinery near Delhi has a daily capacity of 300000 barrels [20] and is equipped
for processes including visbreaking and FCC. LPG from the refinery is taken 273 km by
pipeline to a bottling plant from which it is distributed for sale. Previously it was loaded
on to tankers at the refinery. As well as having itself operated a refinery in Jharkhand, the
Tata Iron and Steel Company has manufactured distillation columns for refineries including
Tatipaka [21]. The MRPL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited) Mangalore
Refinery has a capacity of about 30000 barrels per day [22]. It receives crude oil from
countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Malaysia and Kazakhstan and is the scene of
manufacture of benzene for use in PVC manufacture and of paraxylene [23].
The BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited) Kochi Refinery in Kerala has a capacity
of 310000 barrels per day [24]. Its product range is wide and includes ‘special boiling point
solvents’. By that is meant alkanes in approximately the C5 to C10 range or mixtures thereof
having a particularly low (typically > 50 p.p.m.) level of aromatic contaminant. Bitumen
produced at Kochi is mixed with rubber seed oil (plentiful in India) to make ‘rubberised
bitumen’. Some of it is mixed with crumb rubber to form ‘rubber modified bitumen’ which
shows good performance in applications to road engineering. The refinery is set up to receive
150
from VLCCs. It is noted in [24] that this makes for favourable freight costs. The Bina
Refinery in Madhya Pradesh, capacity 120000 barrels per day, uses its own petroleum coke
as a solid fuel to raise steam for power generation [25] and that is fairly unusual. To gasify
the petroleum coke to make a fuel gas for power generation, as at the Elefsina Refinery in
Greece (Chapter 2), would be more common. Like the Visakhapatnam Refinery , the Bina
Refinery uses the Penex™ process to make linear alkylbenzenes.
The HPLC Mumbai Refinery has a capacity of 100000 barrels per day [26]. It has vacuum
distillation, FCC and diesel hydrotreating. There is major production of heavier substances
such as base oils and lubricants. The BPCL Mumbai Refinery has a capacity of 230000
barrels per day [27]. It receives foreign crudes from countries including Iraq and Kuwait and
domestic crude from the offshore Mumbai High field. The Paradip Refinery was opened in
2016 [28]. It has a nameplate capacity of just under 0.3 million barrels per day and a Nelson
complexity index of 10.7. At present, about 10% of the refined product is exported, for
example to Malaysia and to Bangladesh. The refinery is well set up for residuum conversion
(it is a ‘zero bottom refinery’) and the entire product is light material [29]. The refinery is
a recent grass roots one as noted, and a good conversion depth would have been the most
important factor in its planning. The Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in the Punjab is also
relatively recent. It began operations in 2012, and its capacity is 170000 barrels per day
[30]. Again, there are no residual products.
The CPCL (Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd., formerly Madras Refineries Ltd.) Manali
Refinery, capacity 220000 barrels per day [31], has been in existence for 50 years. The
Nagapattnam Refinery, a.k.a. the Cauvery Basin Refinery and also CPCL, dates from 1993
when it received only local Narimanam crude [31]. This has an API gravity > 45 degrees
and so is very light. Manali now receives crude from two fields, one in the Bay of Bengal
and one offshore Pondicherry. The NOCL Cuddalore Refinery came into operation in April
2018 [32]. Its current capacity is 115000 barrels per day, and that is likely to expand. As
reported in Chapter 2, it has distillation columns which were previously in use at a refinery
in Germany. The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) comprises
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and it
is intended that products from the refinery will be exported to some of these.
The Mathura Refinery has a capacity of 160000 barrels per day [33]. Using the approximate
data [34] that the carbon footprint of refining of a barrel of oil is 50 kg and that a tree takes
up 25 kg of CO2 in a year, the number of trees which would erase the carbon footprint
of this refinery is:
50 kg bbl-1 × 160000 bbl day-1/(25/365) kg day-1 = 115 million.
151
The refinery has been responsible for the planting of over a million trees in the local area
[35]. It has not been asserted that this number of trees will offset the CO2 due to the
refinery, but this simple calculation is helpful in implanting in a reader a critical attitude
towards tree planting schemes. The Haldia Refinery in West Bengal has a capacity of 116000
barrels per day [36]. Its products include the less common commodity jute batching oil, by
means of which jute fibres are beneficiated [37]. The refinery operates a Polybed™ system
[38]. Streams from such operations as hydrocracking and hydrotreatment contain appreciable
amounts of elemental hydrogen – sometimes the H2 preponderates – and Polybed™ effects
a removal of this for subsequent refinery use. Efflux gas from a unit such as a hydrocracker
or hydrotreater enters a column where molecules other than H2 are adsorbed leaving a gas
enriched in H2. The effectiveness depends on the pressure and on the choice of adsorbent. The
adsorbed material having been separated from the hydrogen is removed by depressurisation.
The process is an example of ‘pressure swing adsorption’.
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7.3 PAKISTAN
The refineries are listed in the table below, which is followed by comments.
Refinery. Capacity/bbl day-1.
Pak-Arab Refinery a.k.a. the Mid-

100000 [39].
Country Refinery (MCR).
National Refinery (NRL). 55500 [40].
Attock Refinery (ARL). 30000 [42].
Byco Refinery (Byco Petroleum Pakistan). 120000 [44].
Pakistan Refinery (PRL). 50000 [47].
Enar Petroleum Refining Facility (Enar). 3000 [49].
Khyber Refinery. Under construction. 20000 aimed for [50].
Indus Oil Refinery. Under construction. 93000 aimed for [51].
Grace Refinery Ltd. (GRL). Under construction. 222000 aimed for [52].
Al-motahedoon Petroleum
50000 aimed for [53].
Refinery. Under construction.
The Pak-Arab Refinery takes crude from fields offshore Abu Dhabi including Upper Zakum
and Murban Bab. It also takes some domestic crude. The National Refinery is in Karachi and
it entered service in 1963. Additionally to liquid fuels it has specialty products including ‘slack
wax’ and ‘rubber process oil’. Slack wax contains some oil, up to 30% of the total weight.
It finds quite wide application, for example to the manufacture of waterproof substances
and of rust prevention preparations. Rubber process oils are used in the manufacture of
rubber products, most notably tyres [41]. The Attock Refinery near Islamabad dates from
1922 which, of course, is before Pakistan (as West Pakistan) was separated from India. It
receives domestic crude [43] and is not as yet set up for residuum conversion. Accordingly,
it produces heavy fuel oil in addition to distillate fuels. The local crudes it receives are fairly
light, and that to limited a degree compensates for the absence of such facilities as FCC.
The Byco Refinery is a hydroskimming refinery [45]. It was out of service for a number of
months after a fire in 2015 [46]. The Pakistan Refinery in Karachi is also a hydroskimming
refinery [48] and also receives domestic crude. The very small Enar Petroleum Refining
Facility receives condensate as well as local light crude. With condensate of course there
will be no heavy residue, and the concept of refining depth would not relate to a refinery
receiving condensate only.
153
The four refineries in Pakistan under construction will be briefly considered in turn. The
Khyber Refinery is in the province of Pakistan known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and
will receive crude from oil fields in KP e.g. the Nashpa-Mela fields. The Indus Oil Refinery
will be the first deep conversion refinery in Pakistan and will be situated in Karachi [51].
The refinery in the table attributed to Grace Refinery Ltd. is a large one which on becoming
operational will help reduce imports of refined petroleum products into Pakistan, the express
aim of the investors. The Al-motahedoon Petroleum Refinery also will receive condensate
as well as crude oil.
7.4 BANGLADESH
In that country of population 163 millions there are three refineries, all of them small. The
Eastern Refinery, owned by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), has a capacity of
about 30000 barrels per day [54] and its facilities include visbreaking and hydrocracking.
There has been heavy reliance on this refinery at times when imports of refined petroleum
products have become uncertain. Bangladesh’s Petromax Refinery, capacity 2500 barrels per
day, receives condensate from Malaysia, and the refined products are supplied exclusively to
BPC [55] who sell them locally. There is an even smaller condensate refinery in Chittagong,
Bangladesh. Operated by Super Petrochemical Limited, it obtains domestic condensate
and produces special boiling point solvents (see the coverage of the Kochi Refinery in
Kerala, India) [56]. Solvents are seen as the most important products at this refinery. The
accompanying distillate fuels are used by government bodies.
7.5 SRI LANKA

The sole oil refinery in this island nation is the Sapugaskanda Refinery. Owned by the Ceylon
Petroleum Company, it has a capacity of 50000 barrels per day [57] and is a hydroskimming
refinery. It processes crude oil from Iran. There are plans for a new oil refinery in Sri Lanka
[58]. The target capacity is 200000 barrels of crude oil per day and its location will be
close to the Port of Hambantota. The port facilities are being constructed in phases and it
is intended that, when complete, it will have VLCC capability.
154
7.6 AFGHANISTAN
The Ghazanfar Oil Refinery in Hairaton, northern Afghanistan, came into operation in 2013
with a capacity of 3500 barrels per day [59]. It only marginally relieves the dependence
on imported refined products from countries including Russia. Products include Mazut
100 fuel oil (see the description of the Komsomolsk Refinery in the previous chapter). The
refinery receives foreign crude oil: there is no domestic oil in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is
landlocked, and the refinery receives crude oil not by pipeline but by rail and trucking.

Refineries featuring in this chapter have ranged from the largest in the world to a few having
capacities > 5000 barrels per day. The second largest is the Paraguaná Refinery Complex
in Venezuela, which featured in the chapter on OPEC countries. The third, fourth and
fifth largest are in South Korea, respectively the Ulsan Refinery, the Yeosu Refinery and
the Onsan Refinery. The next chapter will deal with Japan, South Korea and North Korea.
www.job.oticon.dk
155
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.revolvy.com/page/Visakhapatnam-Refinery
[2] https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/wiki/Visakhapatnam_Refinery
[3] https://www.hindustanpetroleum.com/itcrudeoilImports
[4] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/118-india/oil-refining/295-ongc-
tatipaka-oil-refinery
[5] https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/ongc-to-up-tatipaka-refinery-
capacity-104092001026_1.html
[6] https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/ongc-to-up-tatipaka-refinery-
capacity-104092001026_1.html
[7] https://iocl.com/AboutUs/BongaigaonRefinery.aspx
[8] https://www.iocl.com/AboutUs/BarauniRefinery.aspx
[9] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/essar/
[10] https://iocl.com/AboutUs/GujaratRefinery.aspx
[11] https://www.iocl.com/aboutus/digboirefinery.aspx
[12] https://db0nus869y26v.cloudfront.net/en/Reliance_Petroleum
[13] http://www.ril.com/OurBusinesses/PetroleumRefiningAndMarketing.aspx
[14] https://www.bechtel.com/projects/jamnagar-oil-refinery/
[15] https://www.worldoil.com/news/2012/9/26/pdvsa-signs-crude-oil-supply-deal-with-reliance
[16] https://www.flenco.com/index.php/projects/52-sleipner-oil-field-north-sea-norway-4
[17] https://www.bechtel.com/projects/jamnagar-oil-refinery/
[19] https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2007/11/05/9076063/paraxylene-px-
production-and-manufacturing-process/
[20] https://www.iocl.com/aboutus/panipatrefinery.aspx
[21] http://tatanagar.com/tata-steel-growth-shop/
[22] https://www.mrpl.co.in/
[23] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/mangalorerefineryexp/
[24] https://www.bharatpetroleum.com/our-businesses/refineries/kochi-refinery/overview.aspx
[25] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/borlbinarefinery/
[26] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/118-india/oil-refining/281-hpcl-
mumbai-oil-refinery
[27] https://www.bharatpetroleum.com/our-businesses/refineries/mumbai-refinery.aspx
[28] https://www.iocl.com/aboutus/Paradip-Refinery.aspx
[29] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/paradiprefineryoriss/
[30] http://www.hmel.in/ggsr-project
[31] https://www.cpcl.co.in/Refineries
[32] http://www.nocl.co.in/
[33] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/mathura-refinery
156
[34] Jones J.C. ‘Numerical exercises in carbon dioxide uptake by trees’ Physics Education
48 11-12 (2013).
[35] https://www.iocl.com/aboutus/MathuraRefinery.aspx
[36] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/118-india/oil-refining/288-iocl-
haldia-oil-refinery
[37] https://www.iocl.com/AboutUs/HaldiaRefinery.aspx
[38] https://www.honeywell.com/newsroom/pressreleases/2018/07/honeywell-technology-
to-help-indian-oil-corporation-meet-new-clean-fuels-specifications
[39] https://www.parco.com.pk/our-business/refining/mid-country-refinery/
[40] http://www.nrlpak.com/
[41] https://pub-ltd.com/oil/rubber-process-oil/
[42] https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Oil+refining.-a010555456
[43] https://tribune.com.pk/story/752850/barrel-along-after-a-decade-pakistan-resumes-
crude-oil-export/
[44] https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/220339-Byco-refinery-to-resume-production
[45] http://www.byco.com.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&Item
id=208
[46] https://tribune.com.pk/story/993415/byco-bigger-unlisted-refinery-still-shut/
[48] https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview/PKRF.KA
[49] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/enar-petroleum-refining-facility
[50] https://timesofislamabad.com/19-Aug-2018/khyber-refinery-limited-plans-huge-oil-
refinery-in-kp
[51] http://www.irl.com.pk/homes.html
[52] https://dailytimes.com.pk/66958/pbit-to-assist-grace-refinery-invest-rs-5bn-in-punjab/
[53] https://www.thenewsteller.com/business/kpk-govt-ties-up-with-uae-firm-to-set-up-oil-
refinery-in-kohat/29785/
[54] https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/wiki/Eastern_Refinery
[55] https://www.bing.com/search?q=petromax+refinery+bangladesh&form=EDGSPH&m
kt=en-gb&httpsmsn=1&refig=2ecdcd936d7e4222938f78b2cb1346e7&DAF0=1&sp=1&q
s=AS&pq=petromax+refinery+&sc=3-18&cvid=2ecdcd936d7e4222938f78b2cb1346e7&cc
=GB&setlang=en-US
[56] http://www.supergroupbd.com/super-refinery-pvt-limited/
[57] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/sapugaskanda-refinery
[58] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sri-lanka-3-9b-oil-190122686.html
[59] http://www.ghazanfargroup.com/refinery.php?lang=en
157
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Japan, South Korea and North Korea
8 JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA

AND NORTH KOREA
8.1 REFINERIES IN JAPAN

Japan is well capitalised with refineries. She has very little crude oil and shortly after WW2
expanded her refinery base so that, by the refining of imported oil, Japanese industries such
as car manufacture could advance (as they most certainly did!). The refineries in Japan are
list in the table below and comments follow. Some out-of-service refineries are included.
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158
Refinery. Capacity/bbl per day.
Chiba Refinery (Cosmo Oil). 177000 [1].
Yokkaichi Refinery (Cosmo Oil). 86000 [2].
Sakai Refinery (Cosmo Oil). 100000 [3].
140000. Closed in 2013 and

Sakaide Refinery (Cosmo Oil).
converted to an oil terminal [4].
Sendai Refinery (JX Nippon Oil & Energy*).

*Formed by the merger in 2010 of 145000 [5].
Nippon Oil and JX Holdings.
Negishi Yokohama Refinery (JX

270000 [6].
Nippon Oil & Energy).
Osaka Refinery (JX Nippon Oil & Energy). 115000 [7].
400000 [8].
Mizushima Refinery (JX Nippon Oil & Energy).
(Mizushima A and Mizushima B.)
Marifu Refinery (JX Nippon Oil & Energy). 127000 [9].
60000. Closed in 2009 and

Toyama Refinery (Nihonkai Oil).
converted to an oil terminal [10].
Kubiki Refinery (Teikoku Oil). 4725. Closed in 2012 [11].
Kyokuto Chiba Refinery

(TonenGeneral Sekiyu). 152000 [12].
Sekiyu (石油) means ‘oil’ or ‘petroleum’.
Kawasaki Refinery (TonenGeneral Sekiyu). 335000 [13].
Wakayama Refinery (TonenGeneral Sekiyu). 170000 [14].
Sakai Refinery (TonenGeneral Sekiyu). 156000 [15].
Nansei Sekiyu Refinery (Taiyo Oil). 100000 [16].
Keihin Refinery (Shell Showa and Toa Oil). 185000 [17].
Showa Yokkaichi Refinery (Showa Shell).

Showa Shell Sekiyu is a subsidiary of Royal 210000 [18].
Dutch Shell. In 2019 it merged with Idemitsu.
Yamaguchi Refinery (Showa Shell Sekiyu). 120000 [19].
Sodegaura Refinery (Fuji Oil Company). 140000 [20].
159
Refinery. Capacity/bbl per day.
Kashima Refinery (Kashima Oil Company). 237500 [21].
Taiyo Oil Shikoku Refinery (Taiyo Oil). 120000 [22].
Oita Refinery(JX Nippon Oil & Energy). 136000 [23].
Hokkaido Refinery (Idemitsu Kosan). 140000 [24].
Idemitsu Chiba Refinery (Idemitsu Kosan). 220000 [25].
Aichi Refinery (Idemitsu Kosan). 160000 [26].
Tokuyama Refinery (Idemitsu Kosan). 120000. Closed in 2014 [27].
The capacities in the right hand column add up to 4.1 million barrels per day. The total
refining capacity of Japan is given in [28] as 3.5 million barrels per day which is 15%
lower. Which of the figures is more reliable is impossible to judge without information
which is not available. If for a particular refinery the annual amount refined is divided by
365, that is barrels per calendar day. If the refinery for whatever reason is for x days in the
year not operating, the total amount refined divided by (365 - x) is barrels per stream day.
Compilations seldom distinguish. So if at a particular refinery there is a 30 day outage for
maintenance (nothing remarkable), for the year in which the outage occurred the production
in barrels per stream day exceeds the production in barrels per calendar day by a factor
365/335 = 1.09. There is a return to this point in the next chapter when the Dalian Refinery
in China is described.
Previously (up to April 2017) the Cosmo Oil Chiba Refinery near Tokyo had a nameplate
capacity of 240000 barrels per day, and that was reduced to the capacity of 177000 barrels
per day given in the table [29]. It is not that the refinery began to operate below nameplate
capacity: the nameplate capacity itself was reduced. Usually the nameplate capacity is the
number of barrels per day which can be atmospherically distilled. If however a large proportion
of the distillate goes on to further processes, these might determine the nameplate capacity
of the refinery. If under such circumstances the distillation unit worked at its own nameplate
capacity there would be oversupply of distillate for further processing. We are informed in
[29] that refineries in Japan have been required to ‘increase the ratio of residue cracking
units to crude distillation units’, in other words they are required to improve the refinery
depth. That nameplate capacities will be affected is of course inevitable.
The Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi Refinery began operations in July 1943 [30], which was nineteen
months after Pearl Harbour. It is interesting to speculate that at that time it might have
160
refined oil from the then Dutch East Indies and that the products were used by the air force
(gasoline) and by the navy (heavy residual fuel oil). The Cosmo Oil Sakai Refinery came
into operation in 1968 [31], and consistently with the refining policy in Japan summarised
in the previous paragraph this refinery has gone to a delayed coker of higher capacity than
previously (see the discussion of the Coruña Refinery in Spain in Chapter 2). Like any
other Japanese refinery as noted in the introduction to this chapter, the Cosmo Oil Sakaide
Refinery relied on imported crude. In fact it received crude from the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait [32]. When as at Sakaide a refinery is redeployed
as a terminal that requires an assessment which takes into account inter alia the existing
storage capacity and pipeline capacity [33]. The terminal at Sakaide is operated by Cosmo,
a circumstance which helped to prevent redundancies when refining operations stopped.
The JX Nippon Oil & Energy Sendai Refinery, which experienced earthquake damage
in 2011 [34], is capable of a high degree of residuum conversion and the products are
LPG and gasoline [35]. Since start-up after the earthquake it has used ethyl tertiary butyl
ether (ETBE, structure below) as an octane enhancer for gasoline [36]. Since 2009 the JX
Nippon Oil & Energy has manufactured ETBE at Negishi where it also operates a refinery
as recorded in the table. The refinery is also the scene of the generation of electricity all of
which is sold to the Tokyo Power Company.
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Ethyl tertiary butyl ether.
The JX Nippon Oil & Energy refinery in Osaka was closed for about a week after an
earthquake in 2018 [37]. Most of the products from this refinery are exported to China
[38]. What is termed the JX Nippon Oil & Energy Mizushima Refinery is two refineries A
and B as noted. B is the one of greater capacity. The refineries are separated by a sea channel
as shown in Plate 8.1 below. Attempts in 2012 to link Mizushima A and Mizushima B
by installing a subsea tunnel between them ended in tragedy when the tunnel filled with
water. Five lives were lost.
Plate 8.1. Sea channel separating Mizushima A Refinery from Mizushima B Refinery. Image taken from
[39].
The the JX Nippon Oil & Energy Marifu Refinery has products across the range from LPG
to asphalt [40]. It also produces ‘needle coke’, which is used to make electrodes for electric
arc furnaces. The Toyama Refinery owned by Nihonkai Oil was as noted converted into a
terminal and was operated as that by the JX Nippon Oil & Energy Mizushima Refinery
to receive refinery products in readiness for export [41]. This arrangement continued until
2019 [42]. The Teikoku Oil Kubiki Refinery was set up in 1963 to process oil from the
local Kubiki field [43]. Later it processed condensate from the Minami Nagaoka field. Much
too small for viability as a storage facility, the refinery was decommissioned.
162
The Kyokuto Chiba Refinery (also an earthquake victim in 2011) is another example of
a refinery having undergone nameplate capacity reduction at least partly as a result of
increased importance of post-distillation operations. Before 2014 the capacity was 15%
higher than that given in the table. The TonenGeneral Sekiyu Kawasaki Refinery reduced
its capacity by about 3.5% in 2015 [44]. It is not clear whether this was linked to a fire
in the hydrocracker the previous year. The TonenGeneral Sekiyu Wakayama Refinery, like
the Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi Refinery, began producing during WW2 [45]. Over the period
1941-1945 the refinery processed about 5 million barrels of crude oil and more than half of
the refined product went to the war effort. Pearl Harbour was in December 1941, but we
can immediately dispel speculation that Wakayama or any other Japanese refinery supplied
the fuel for the aircraft carriers. It is well documented that at the time of Pearl Harbour
the Imperial Japanese Navy was using only imported fuel.
The TonenGeneral Sekiyu Sakai Refinery is the fourth and final TonenGeneral Sekiyu refinery
to feature in the table. TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. can trace its origins to 1920: that it was
producing during WW2 has already been noted. It was once owned by Standard Oil. It has
had its present name only since 2000 [46]. Two of the refineries in the table are at Sakai,
the Cosmo Oil one and this one. Sakai is in the Osaka Prefecture and is on the Pacific
coast. It was mentioned in Chapter 4 that at refineries removed sulphur is often in molten
form. At the TonenGeneral Sekiyu Sakai Refinery in 2012 there was a leak of about 50
tonnes of molten sulphur [47]. There were no consequences. The Nansei Sekiyu Nishihara
Refinery is the only refinery on the island of Okinawa (population 1.4 millions). Nansei
Sekiyu (‘Nansei Petroleum’) are a subsidiary of Petrobras who previously operated the refinery
which, after a period of mothballing, was sold to Taiyo Oil in 2017. The capacity given for
this refinery in the table is that for operation by Nansei Sekiyu. Taiyo Oil on acquisition
undertook to supply local needs.
It was briefly described in Chapter 2 how at the Elefsina refinery in Greece the petroleum
coke produced during cracking is, in an integrated process called FLEXICOKING TM,
passed to a gasifier to make fuel gas which can be put to refinery use. In 2013 the Keihin
Refinery (next row) increased its flexibility in terms of the range of crudes it can process
by this means. Application of FLEXICOKINGTM in conjunction with FLEXISORBTM for
desulphurising the gas so produced and removing particles from it [48] enables this refinery
to accept heavier and less expensive crudes without being left with more petroleum coke
to offload on to the market. RFCC, which as noted takes place at the Cilacap Refinery in
Indonesia and at the Cadereyta Refinery in Mexico, is practised at the Showa Refinery in
Yokkaichi, western Honshu [49]. This produces olefins which are blended with gasoline
instead of being used as a basis for making polymers. The Yamaguchi Refinery is partly
owned by Saudi Aramco who are the suppliers of crude oil to it. The Sodegaura Refinery is
in Chiba like two of the refineries previously discussed. In 2018 the refinery began use of
163
a Platforming catalyst (see the discussion of the Tuscaloosa Refinery in Alabama) to reform
naphtha into aromatics [50]. In the previous year both its thermal and catalytic cracking
capacities were raised [51]. Clearly that will improve refining depth. Thermal cracking at
this refinery is of vacuum residue and is by the EUREKA® Process, itself developed by Fuji
for use at Sodegaura [52]. It is a semi-batch process, that is, there is no steady influx and
efflux as in a CSTR, but provision is made for injection of superheated steam into the
reactor and removal of cracked products. These become gasoline and diesel. The steam is
not a reactant: it supplies heat to the reactor and also removes the cracking products by
the physical process of steam stripping. The process is not hydrocracking, and the amount
of solid residue is appreciable. Termed ‘pitch’ [52], this can be used as a boiler fuel.
The Kashima Refinery came into operation in 1970. It has recently taken up ROSE®
(Residuum Oil Supercritical Extraction) [53]. That means use of a supercritical fluid to
remove asphalt from residual material. Whether the residue so ‘deasphalted’ goes on to be
cracked or whether it becomes the base of a fuel oil, a base oil or a lubricant the asphalt so
extracted is a bonus. In April 2019 it was announced that Saudi Aramco are to introduce
ROSE® at their refinery in Riyadh (see Chapter 3). The JX Nippon Oil & Energy Oita
Refinery, which was previously owned by Kyishu Oil Company, began operations in 1964.
Showa Denko K.K., who manufacture petrochemicals, have a complex in Oita [54] which
has one or two overlapping operations with the refinery. For example, the refinery supplies
the petrochemical complex with butane. Similarly, a stream having been stripped of propylene
at the petrochemical complex is returned to the refinery as a fuel gas for sale [55].
The Idemitsu Kosan Hokkaido Refinery receives crude oil by tanker, and its products are
distributed by pipeline for local use. It has RFCC, propylene from which is passed along
to the Idemitsu Kosan Chiba Refinery. The Idemitsu Kosan Aichi Refinery is a complex
one and has recently added to its capabilities xylene production for solvent use as is or for
polyester manufacture [56]. The Idemitsu Kosan Tokuyama Refinery is an obvious example
of what was described in the introductory part of this chapter, the proliferation of refineries
in Japan in the years following WW2. It commenced operations in 1957 and occupied
the site of a former Imperial Japanese Navy fuel depot. As well as meeting Japan’s own
fuel needs, the refining industry does make some petroleum products available for export,
notably to Australia as mentioned in Chapter 10.
164
8.2 REFINERIES IN SOUTH KOREA

There are five refineries in operation in this country as shown in the table.
Ulsan Refinery (SK Energy). 840000 [57].
Onsan Refinery (S-Oil). 669000 [58].
Yeosu Refinery (GS Caltex). 750000 [59].
Incheon Refinery (SK Group). 275000 [60].
Daesan Refinery (Hyundai Oilbank). 650000 [61].
The aggregate capacity of the refineries in the table is 3.2 million barrels per day. As noted
in Chapter 7, the SK Energy Ulsan Refinery is the third largest refinery in the world.
For part of the 1990s it was the largest in the world. It has three distillation trains and is
supplied with crude oil by Saudi Aramco. It has recently also purchased crude from the
US, from Mexico and from Kazakhstan [62]. The SK Energy Ulsan Refinery has RFCC but
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165
also produces major amounts of asphalt, a useful and saleable substance as we have seen.
It has a Nelson complexity index of 7.2 [63]. The surprisingly low value might be partly
due to the fact that not all of the heavier material is subjected to RFCC. The remainder is
retained for asphalt production. That will have reduced the factor by which the increment
for RFCC (expected to be > 2) is multiplied in calculation of the Nelson complexity index.
A reader who wishes to do so can refer to the calculation apropos of Nelson complexity
indices in Chapter 2. From that it is clear that at a refinery some fluctuation in Nelson
complexity index is expected.
The S-Oil (previously Korea-Iran Petroleum Company) Onsan Refinery, another very large
one, has a Nelson complexity index of 7.7 [63]. It has a conversion capacity of 29% [63],
a term which will be explained. It is defined as:
conversion capacity (CC) = cracking capacity/atmospheric distillation capacity
where cracking includes FCC, RFCC, visbreaking, hydrocracking and coking. It is not a
measure of how much of the crude becomes distillate fuel. It is a measure of how much of
the eventual light material has been from conversion processes rather than from distillation
possibly accompanied by naphtha reforming. A refinery consistently receiving light crude
would need a lower conversion capacity for a target percentage yield of light products than
would one consistently receiving heavy crude. We are informed in [64] that the S-Oil Onsan
Refinery has a hydrocracking capacity of 75000 barrels per day and an FCC capacity of
73000 barrels per day. That is for a crude oil refining capacity about 87% of nameplate,
actually 580000 barrels per day. Only about 80% of the material directed at the FCC units
gets to it. The other 20% is cracked during the process which upgrades the original residue
material for FCC, called the HyvahlTM Process [65], so the effective FCC is (73000/0.8)
barrels per day = 91250 barrels per day. The CC is then:
(75000 + 91250)/580000 = 0.29 or 29%
and the value in [63] has been reproduced exactly. One should note [63] that polymerisation
is a ‘refinery operation’ for the purpose of calculating the Nelson complexity index, and
this was so when the Nelson complexity index was introduced nearly 60 years ago. In this
approach to refining therefore fuel production and petrochemical production are not treated
separately. There is further discussion of this point when one of the refineries in China is
discussed in a later chapter.
The Caltex Yeosu Refinery (Plate 8.2 below) is the fourth largest in the world. As well as
distillate fuels, it produces major amounts of products derived from residue. These include
base oils and lubricants [66]. This refinery is mentioned in Chapter 3 of this book, where
the point is made that to aim for the deepest conversion, meaning maximum production
166
of light material from heavy, is not necessarily the most suitable approach to refining.
That being said, this refinery does have hydrocracking [67]. It might be that its size makes
concurrent residuum conversion and residuum retention viable.
Plate 8.2. The Caltex Yeosu Refinery in Korea.

Image taken from: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/289778557248226785/
The Incheon Refinery owned by SK was until recently receiving Iranian condensate, but is
now replacing that with light crude from countries including Russia and Kazakhstan [68].

167
The interchangeability of condensate and light crude has featured several times in this book,
for example when the Al-Ahmadi Refinery in Kuwait is discussed. The Daesan Refinery has
recently expanded its delayed coking and hydrocracking capacities [69]. Delayed coking breaks
down residue, atmospheric or vacuum, into lighter material. More rarely it is applied to crude
oil (see the coverage of the Khartoum Refinery in Chapter 12). This provides for acceptance
of a wider range of crude oils, and its introduction at the Daesan Refinery will enable the
refinery to purchase heavy crude from Mexico. That heavier crude should be accompanied by
expanded delayed coking and hydrocracking is of course totally intuitive. Like Japan though
to a smaller extent, South Korea exports refined petroleum products to Australia.
8.3 NORTH KOREA

Oil refining takes place at the Ponghwa chemical factory in Sinŭiju, capacity 10000 barrels
per day [70]. North Korea imports no crude oil. Amounts of crude oil and of refined
petroleum products imported into Korea are restricted by trade sanctions. Each come from
China [71]. The Sŭngri Refinery, close to the Russian border with North Korea, is not
currently in service.

It is pointed out in section 6.2 of this book that countries with the largest oil refining are
US (first), China (second), Russia (third) and Japan (fourth). For China to feature in the
next chapter is the most logical progression.
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[1] https://coc.cosmo-oil.co.jp/eng/company/chiba.html
[2] https://coc.cosmo-oil.co.jp/eng/company/yokkaichi.html
[3] https://coc.cosmo-oil.co.jp/eng/company/sakai.html
[4] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/134-japan/oil-refining/350-cosmo-
oil-sakaide-oil-refinery
[5] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/134-japan/oil-refining/362-jx-
nippon-sendai-oil-refinery
[6] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/negishi-yokahama-refinery
[7] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-jxhd/japans-trade-ministry-says-
jxtgs-osaka-refinery-remains-halted-idUSKBN1JE08G
168
[8] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/mizushima-refinery
nippon-marifu-oil-refinery
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nihonkai-oil-toyama-oil-refinery-shutdown
[11] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/134-japan/oil-refining/357-inpex-
kubiki-gas-condensate-refinery
[12] abarrelfull.wikidot.com/chiba-kyokuto-refinery
tonengeneral-kawasaki-oil-refinery
tonengeneral-wakayama-oil-refinery
tonengeneral-sakai-oil-refinery
[16] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/nishihara-refinery
[17] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/keihin-refinery
[18] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/showa-yokkaichi-refinery
[19] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/yamaguchi-refinery
[20] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/sodegaura-refinery
kashima-oil-refinery
[22] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/134-japan/oil-refining/371-taiyo-
oil-shikoku-oil-refinery
nippon-oita-oil-refinery
idemitsu-kosan-tomakomai-oil-refinery
idemitsu-kosan-chiba-oil-refinery
idemitsu-kosan-aichi-oil-refinery
[27] https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/knowledge-base/idemitsu-announces-closure-of-tokuyama-
refinery-by-2014/
[28] https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/21012019/japan-will-be-third-largest-
contributor-to-crude-oil-refining-capacity-in-asia-from-2018-to-2023-according-to-globaldata/
[29] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-cosmo-energyhldg/cosmo-oil-to-
reduce-nameplate-refinery-capacity-at-chiba-plant-idUSKBN16Z0CW
[30] https://coc.cosmo-oil.co.jp/eng/company/yokkaichi.html
[31] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/134-japan/oil-refining/349-cosmo-
oil-sakai-oil-refinery
169
[32] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/sakaide-refinery
[33] https://www.kbc.global/about/case-studies/refinery-conversion-to-an-importing-terminal-
assessment
[34] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/05/jx-nippon-oil-resumes.html
[35] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/sendai-refinery
[36] https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/042213-japans-jx-
to-start-selling-etbe-blended-gasoline-in-northeast-from-may
[37] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/06/18/business/osaka-earthquake-causes-auto-
electronics-plants-suspend-operations/
[38] http://www.evaluateenergy.com/Universal/View.aspx?type=Story&id=90953
[39] https://www.tunneltalk.com/Japan-04September2013-Underwater-TBM-recovery-to-
investigate-fatal-Japan-tunnel-collapse.php
[40] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1452922/000119312517215521/d408863d20f.
htm
[41] https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/knowledge-base/nippon-oil-to-close-toyama-refinery/
[42] https://www.reuters.com/article/crude-nippon-oil-shutdown-idUST16671420090113
[43] https://www.inpex.co.jp/english/news/pdf/2012/e20121122.pdf
[44] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/kawasaki-refinery
[45] https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/tonengeneral-
sekiyu-kk
[46] http://www.company-histories.com/TonenGeneral-Sekiyu-KK-Company-History.html
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[48] https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/catalysts-and-technology-licensing/resid-
conversion
[49] https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2009/02/26/9196145/japans-showa-shell-
to-shut-down-units-at-yokkaichi-refinery/
[50] https://www.marketscreener.com/FUJI-OIL-CO-LTD-6497071/news/Fuji-Oil-selects-
Honeywell-UOPs-catalyst-for-Sodegaura-Refinery-in-Japan-27033707/
[51] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-operations-fuji-oil-co/japans-fuji-oil-to-
boost-capacity-of-secondary-refining-units-idUSKBN1710P2
[52] https://www.chiyodacorp.com/en/service/oil-refinement/eureka/
[53] https://www.digitalrefining.com/data/literature/file/66349802.pdf
[54] http://www.sdk.co.jp/english/news/2018/26960.html
[55] https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL4N1V52KE
[56] https://www.compelo.com/energy/news/idemitsu-kosan-begins-operations-at-new-mixed-
xylene-unit-at-aichi-refinery/
[57] http://wikimapia.org/15084641/SK-Corp-Ulsan-Refinery
[58] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2016/08/s-oil-lets-contract-for-onsan-refinery-hs-rfcc-
complex.html
170
[59] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/226-south-korea/oil-refining/578-
gs-caltex-yeosu-oil-refinery
[60] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/226-south-korea/oil-refining/580-
sk-incheon-oil-refinery
[61] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/hyundai-daesan-refinery
[62] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-skenergy-crude-idUSKBN1AO2BD
[63] Kaiser M.J. ‘A review of refinery complexity applications’ Petroleum Science 14 167-
194 (2017).
[64] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/s-oil-ulsan-refinery
[65] https://www.axens.net/product/process-licensing/10091/hyvahl.html
[66] http://www.gs.co.kr/en/branch/gs-caltex?page=4
[67] https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2017/09/skoreas-gs-caltex-says-unsure-
when-will-restart-fire-hit-hydrocracker-aromatics-unit
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[71] https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=PR

678'<)25<2850$67(5©6'(*5((
171
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE China, Taiwan and Mongolia
9 CHINA, TAIWAN AND MONGOLIA
9.1 MAJOR REFINERIES IN CHINA (STRICTLY

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, PRC)
The information is in the table below and is complemented in the discussion. There are no
oil refineries in the Hong Kong SAR.
172
Fushun Petrochemical Refinery (CNPC). 186000 [1].
Anqing Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 110000 [4].
Beijing Yanshan Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 200000 [7].
Lanzhou Refinery (CNPC). 280000 [9].
Guangzhou Branch Refinery (SINOPEC). 210000 [10].
Maoming Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 470000 [13].
Beihai Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 100000 [16].
Cangzhou Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 70000 [18].
Daqing Refinery (CNCP). 122000 [20].
Luoyang Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 200000 [22].
Jingmen Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 120000 [23].
Wuhan Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 170000 [24].
Changling Company Refinery

(SINOPEC & China Petroleum & 150000 [25].
Chemical Company a.k.a. CPCC).
Jinling Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 260000 [29].
Jiujiang Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 150000 [30].
Jilin Chemical Refinery (CNCP). 200000 [34].
Dalian Petrochemical Company

400000 [37].
Refinery (CNCP).
Jinxi Refinery (CNCP). 112000 [41].
Jinzhou Petrochemical Company

140000 [43].
Refinery (CNCP).
Huizhou Refinery (China National Offshore

440000 [44].
Oil Corporation a.k.a. CNOOC).
Jinan Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 100000 [46].
Qilu Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 210000 [47].
Shanghai Gaoqiao Oil Refinery (SINOPEC). 250000 [49].
173
Tianjin Company Refinery (SINOPEC). 300000 [53].
Dushanzi Refinery (CNCP). 200000 [54].
Ürümqi Petrochemical Refinery (CNCP). 100000 [55].
Dushanzi Refinery (CNCP). 200000 [58].
Zhenhai Refinery (SINOPEC). 462000 [60].
The Fushun Petrochemical Refinery receives domestic crude oil from Daqing and from
Liaohe as well as some foreign oil from Russia. It produces ethylene and propylene for
polymerisation at the refinery location. It is set up for RFCC [2]. There are some residual
products including base oils and paraffin wax [3], so here again ‘conversion’ is held in balance
with valuable products other than distillate fuels or their equivalents. The Anqing Company
Refinery has FCC, delayed coking and, like the Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery (Chapter
3), alkylation with ionic liquid catalyst [5],[6]. At the Chevron Salt Lake City Refinery
the ISOALKY™ process is used. At the Anqing Company Refinery the Ionikylation process
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174
is used. The ionic liquid in this process has as the cation ψNH3+, where ψ is an organic
group, and as the anion Cl-. The Ionikylation process was introduced at the Anqing Company
Refinery in 2019. Previously the refinery used sulphuric acid as a catalyst for alkylation.
The SINOPEC Beijing Yanshan Company Refinery in south west Beijing uses hydrogen
fluoride in its alkylation unit. The refining capacity figure given in the table converts to
(200000/7) × 365 tonnes per year = 10 million tonnes per year. Often tonnes per year
instead of barrels per day is used as a figure for refinery capacity, and it has the advantage
over barrels per unit time that it is not affected by refinery gain. 10 million tonnes per year
is considered the threshold for classification as a very large refinery, and the Beijing Yanshan
Company Refinery has been so classified [8]. The CNPC Lanzhou Refinery has tended to
operate at below nameplate capacity because of uncertain crude supplies from Xinjiang in
north west China. It has FCC, RFCC and coking. Co-existence of FCC and RFCC at a
particular refinery is touched on in Chapter 3 in the discussion of the Cilacap Refinery
in Indonesia. The Guangzhou Branch Refinery has also been acclaimed as having a ‘ten-
million-tonne oil refining capacity’ [11]. Its product slate is wide and includes, additionally
to distillate fuels, BTX, hexane, petroleum coke and asphalt [12]. The SINOPEC Maoming
Company Refinery has been in operation for over sixty years. Like the Sannazzaro de’
Burgondi Refinery in Italy (Chapter 2) it uses Eni Slurry Technology [14]. The capacity
given in the table is the nameplate capacity. The best performance on record is just over
85% of that, 407387 barrels per day, in May 2018 [15]. The Beihai Company Refinery
came into operation in 2012 [16]. It has delayed coking and catalytic cracking, and the
residual product of most importance is petroleum coke. Propylene is manufactured there,
and polymerised at the same location.
The SINOPEC Cangzhou Company Refinery has a wide product range, from LPG to
asphalt [17]. There is MTBE production at the refinery and olefin for polymerisation. An
interesting specialty product from this refinery is ‘aluminium foil rolling oil’ [18]. It is made
from the kerosene fraction and is exported to venues including Australia, Germany and the
UK [19]. The Daqing Refinery receives crude oil by pipeline from the onshore oil field of
the same name as well as crude oil from Russia. It produces distillate fuels and lubricants,
and ethylene and butadiene are manufactured there. In 2004 there was a fire at this refinery
in which there were several deaths. Ignition was due to ‘hot work’ on a tank [21].
At the SINOPEC Luoyang Company Refinery there is ‘high tenacity polypropylene’ production
[22]. That is suitable for applications including fishing nets and roofing. This refinery
raised its capacity from 160000 barrels per day to 200000 barrels per day in 2019 [22].
Operations beyond fractionation have their capacities which are lower than the atmospheric
distillation capacity. That was shown previously in this book when Nelson complexity index
and conversion capacity (CC) were discussed. When a refinery is ‘expanded’ that means
175
that its atmospheric distillation capacity is raised. Amounts of distilled products are also
increased, and whatever post-fractionation processes await these might have also to be adjusted
in capacity or other such processes might have to be introduced. When the SINOPEC
Luoyang Company Refinery was expanded, the introduction of diesel hydrotreatment enabled
the post-fractionation processes to keep pace with fractionation [22]. Adjustment to the
temperature ranges of the respective distillates (‘cuts’) can help in matching fractionation
capacity to post-fractionation.
The SINOPEC Jingmen Company Refinery receives both domestic and imported crudes.
It has storage for half a million barrels of crude and distillate. Like the ExxonMobil Port
Jerome-Gravenchon Refinery in France (Chapter 2), it numbers white oils amongst its
products. It also makes ‘rubber extender oil’; that is applied to rubber in manufacturing
processes, e.g. tyres, to improve ease of handling. The SINOPEC Wuhan Company Refinery,
like the SINOPEC Anqing Company Refinery, has adopted the Ionikylation process [24].
The Changling Company Refinery took up in 2013 the HPPO – hydrogen peroxide to
propylene oxide – process [25],[26]. This uses a titanium silicon (TS) catalyst and has the
advantage over other means of making propylene oxide that there are no side products
[27]. Propylene oxide is used in making polyurethane. The point was made in an earlier
chapter that polymerisation, a chemical process the end products of which will not be put
to fuel use, has to be factored into a calculation of Nelson complexity index. In fact the
complexity factor for polymerisation is 10 [28], so it requires the resources of a simple
topping refinery processing a quantity ten times larger. HPPO at a refinery can similarly
be allowed for, and a suitable estimate of its complexity factor will be needed. It was stated
in chapter 8 that that for RFCC > 2.
The Jinling Company Refinery has since 2011 received from the South Pars gas field in
Qatar. Previously it received heavy crude residual material from which was subjected to FCC.
The Jiujiang Company Refinery, like several other SINOPEC refineries as noted, has the
Ionikylation process [31]. In 2018 there was an explosion at a hydrotreater at this refinery
[32]. There was reduced output from the refinery as a result, and return to full production
was delayed by slow delivery from abroad of replacements for the destroyed parts [33].
The Jilin Company Refinery has been in operation for over sixty years. This refinery also
has recently introduced alkylation, though not with an ionic liquid catalyst. The catalyst
is sulphuric acid [35], and the process is ‘CDAlky Advanced Sulphuric acid Alkylation’
[36]. Alkylation using a sulphuric acid catalyst is a process which is a century old, but this
method has the advantage over previous methods of requiring a lower temperature. That
is brought about by enhanced contact between the two phases. This offsets any decline
in heat transfer due to the lower temperature. The originality of the process, which was
developed by McDermott International, is in design of the reactor which brings about the
enhanced contact referred to. There is the further advantage that the lower temperature
prevents unwanted side reactions.
176
About 65% of the crude oil received at the Dalian Petrochemical Refinery is from Russia
[38] and is ESPO – East Siberia Pacific Ocean – blend of API gravity typically 35.6° degrees
(density 846 kg m-3) [39]. The refinery also receives domestic oil from Daqing. It is a very
large refinery and has a wide range of products as would be expected, from LPG to food
grade paraffin wax [40]. An interesting facet of the CNCP Jinxi Refinery is that there is a
spin-off organisation called the Jinxi Oil Refinery Candles Manufacturing Company which
makes ornamental candles from wax produced at the refinery [42]. Annually a quantity of
20000 tonnes of the candles are made, and some are exported. The Jinzhou Petrochemical
Company Refinery, like the refinery at Fushun, receives crude from Liaohe and from Daqing
as well as some from Russia. It too has introduced the McDermott process for alkylation.
The complexity factor for alkylation is 10 [28], an order of magnitude above the baseline
for a topping refinery. That is probably based on the traditional HF or H2SO4 methods. It
remains to be seen whether the complexity factor will be reduced by use of either of the
recently introduced methods of alkylation featuring in this chapter. The CNOOC Huizhou
Refinery is the only refinery owned by that organisation. It receives crude oil from an offshore
field in Bohai Bay itself operated by CNOOC. It produces ethylene and paraxylene as well
as liquid distillate fuels.
Mention was made earlier in this chapter of adjustment of boiling ranges of distillates.
Sometimes a fraction composed of the high boilers in kerosene and the low boilers in
diesel, a cut around 300oC, is obtained separately and is called light oil. Light oil is
amongst the products at the Jinan Company Refinery. One would not expect adjustment
to boiling ranges of distillates to change the contribution of 1.0 of atmospheric distillation
to the Nelson complexity index. At the Jinan Company Refinery there are many operations
beyond distillation and they include polymerisation of propylene for which, as noted in
the discussion of the SINOPEC Jingmen Company Refinery earlier in this chapter, the
complexity factor is 10. Other operations at the Jinan Company Refinery include vacuum
distillation (complexity factor 2 [28]) and delayed coking (complexity factor 6 [28]). The
extent to which these raise the Nelson complexity index depends of course on the extent
of their application, what proportions of the total inventory are subjected to the respective
process. In 2019 maintenance and overhaul are the order of the day at several Chinese
refineries [45] and at each the necessary shutdowns will last about 50 days (see section 8.1).
At the Qilu Company Refinery there is major synthetic rubber production [48]. Just over
half of the weight of the crude oil received becomes distillate and residual fuel product.
The balance becomes products including, in addition to synthetic rubber as noted, ethylene
( polyethylene), butanol and 2-ethyl hexanol (2EH). 2EH is used to make esters, used
in the production of plasticisers. Acrylonitrile is another product from the Qilu Company
Refinery. A C3 compound (CH2=CH-C≡N), it can be made with propylene as a starting
material.
177
The SINOPEC Shanghai Gaoqiao Oil Refinery (Plate 9.1 below) has an urban location.
In Chinese philosophical and sociological dogma ‘harmony’ is a dominant expression.
Reference 50 states ‘In the long history of Chinese civilization, harmony has always been
a highly valued virtue. Chinese people have always put an emphasis on harmony’ [50].
A ‘harmonious socialist society’ was the aspiration of Hu Jintao, President the PRC from
2003 to 2013 [51]. SINOPEC sees its social responsibility in operating the Shanghai
Gaoqiao Oil Refinery as ‘developing in common with society, living in harmony with
the environment’ [52]. Accordingly some procedures at the refinery were ended because
of concern over their environmental effects. One was asphalt production and another was
synthetic rubber production. Flaring was investigated. Potential pollution from this refinery
is not only of the atmosphere but also of the nearby Yangtze River.
178
Plate 9.1. The Shanghai Gaoqiao Oil Refinery in March 2018.

Image taken from: https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-regime-neglected-damages-caused-by-
chemical-spill-say-locals_2727419.html
The SINOPEC Tianjin Company Refinery in addition to its large refining capacity can
store 1.7 million barrels of crude or product [53]. It too directs much of the distillation
product to chemical manufacture. Such chemicals include staple fibre composed of polyester.
‘Staple fibre’ means fibres of short length which can be consolidated into yarn, and contrasts
with a continuous fibre. The CNCP Dushanzi Refinery, which was commissioned in 2009,
receives most of its crude oil from Kazakhstan. The capacity of this refinery given in the
table is the same as that of the SINOPEC Beijing Yanshan Company Refinery, 10 million
tonnes per year. Possible wider meaning of the term ‘10 million tonne (or ton: in this
discussion the difference is fairly unimportant) refinery’ is explained earlier in the chapter,
and also features below when the Zhenhai Refinery is described. The Ürümqi Petrochemical
Refinery has recently begun ionic liquid catalysed alkylation (ionikylation) [56]. The refinery
receives Russian and Kazakh oil [57]. Plate 9.2 below shows this refinery. The building in
the foreground is a dormitory!
179
Plate 9.2 Ürümqi Petrochemical Refinery.

Image taken from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2008/jul/25/
renewableenergy.windpower#img-3
The CNCP Dushanzi Refinery also receives crude oil from Kazakhstan. Notwithstanding
the heavy reliance of the refinery on imported oil, Dushanzi has long been a scene of oil
production and in 1936 a refinery (now referred to as the old Dushanzi Refinery) was set
up there to process local oil [59]. With a capacity approaching half a million barrels per
day, the Zhenhai Refinery (final row of the table) is a large one. Its refined products go to
the export market, for example jet fuel and diesel are taken to Rotterdam [61]. The capacity
converts to 24 million tonnes per year, yet it is described in [62] as a 10 million tonne
refinery, an example of the broadening of that term referred to earlier. Zhenhai Refinery is
the scene of ethylene production at 1.1 million tonnes per year.
9.2 TEAPOT REFINERIES

All of the refineries in the table are operated by SINOPEC, CNPC or CNOOC. There are
other refineries in China called ‘teapot refineries’, and these have become more prevalent
since changes to regulations in 2015 made them more viable [63]. Teapot refineries are
largely concentrated in Shandong Province in eastern China and Shaanxi Province in central
China. Companies operating teapots include ChemChina (HQ in Beijing), Sinochem (HQ
in Beijing), NORINCO (HQ in Beijing) and Yanchang Petroleum (HQ in Hong Kong).
There are something like 20 teapot refineries currently in service in China. The average
capacity is 70000 barrels per day [64], and the range descends to 20000 barrels per day.
180
An example is the Lianyungang Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group Lianyungang

Refinery, capacity 60000 barrels per day [65].
The criterion for classification of a refinery as ‘teapot’ is not its smallness but the fact that
it has an operator other than SINOPEC, CNPC or CNOOC. That is relevant to tax and
to import quotas and therefore to the viability referred to in the previous paragraph. There
are teapot refineries whose capacities overlap with those of SINOPEC, CNPC or CNOOC,
for example Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group Refinery in Heze in Shandong the
capacity of which is 18000 barrels per day. Conversely the SINOPEC Cangzhou Company
Refinery (see the table above) has the capacity of a typical teapot refinery but is not one
because of its ownership. In 2018 the teapot refineries in China were receiving altogether
1.4 million barrels per day of imported crude oil [66].
9.3 REFINERIES IN TAIWAN

Refinery gain has featured twice previously in this book. It is about 7% of the volume of
crude oil refined. In a country which produces little oil but refines large amounts of it, refinery
gain can easily exceed production and can legitimately be referred to as production if that is
expressed on a barrels not a weight basis [67]. The most obvious example of this is Taiwan.
181
Refineries in Taiwan are listed below and comments follow.
Talin Refinery (Chinese Petroleum

300000 [67].
Corporation a.k.a. CPC).
Kaohsiung Refinery (CPC). 200000 prior to closure in 2015 [69].
Taoyuan Refinery (CPC). 200000 [70].
Mailiao Refinery (Formosa Petrochemical). 450000 [72].
The Talin Refinery receives crude oil from three sources: the Middle East, Africa and
Central Asia. It has hydrotreating and RFCC. In 2016 CPC started importing condensate
from Australia, and this goes to Talin [68]. The reason for closure of the Kaohsiung
Refinery was its age. Site remediation will take 17 to 20 years. At The Taoyuan Refinery
in north west Taiwan produces distillate and residual fuels as well as solid residue with
fuel application the most obvious of which is steam raising. In 2018 there was a fire at a
diesel hydrodesulphurisation unit at this refinery [71]. There were no injuries. There was a
reduction in diesel production over a period, but purchasers of it were not affected as the
shortfall was met by the Kaohsiung Refinery.
The Mailiao Refinery has three equivalent distillation trains. Accordingly it has three saturated
gas plants. Here ‘saturated’ has nothing to do with phase equilibria: it means that the gases
to which the process is applied are saturated in the sense of the term in structural organic
chemistry, that is, they are alkanes and not alkenes [73]. Once removed by this process
they can go on to refinery use or become LPG. In a sense, if it is understood that the gas
plant is at a distillation train ‘saturated’ is superfluous as olefins do not occur in the simple
gases which accompany distillation. An ‘unsaturated gas plant’ would be used for example in
cracking, and would separate ethylene and/or propylene from the heavier cracked material.
Other facilities at this refinery include hydrogen recovery by pressure swing adsorption,
as at the Haldia Refinery (Chapter 7). Alkylation at the refinery is with a sulphuric acid
catalyst and makes provision for recovery of the catalyst. This involves decomposition of
the acid to H2O, SO2 and O2 at temperatures in the neighbourhood of 1000oC followed
by its reconstitution [74]. This is done on site at the Mailiao Refinery. More commonly
the spent catalyst is taken to a sulphuric acid regeneration facility elsewhere.
The refining capacities in the table (excluding Kaohsiung) add up to 0.95 million barrels
per day which compares reasonably with the value of 1.083 million barrels per day for
2017 given in [75].
182
9.4 MONGOLIA
Quite simply, there are no oil refineries in Mongolia at the present time. The country imports
about 10 million barrels of refined petroleum products annually from Russia. There is a
proposed refinery for Mongolia [76]. A loan has been granted to that end and the target
capacity is ~ 30000 barrels per day, like that of some of the ‘teapot refineries’ in China
described in the previous section. At present Mongolia produces 23000 barrels per day of
crude oil [77], and it is sold to China. Fairly obviously production and refining capacity
in Mongolia could be equalised. That would be particularly advantageous in a landlocked
country.
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petrochemical/20161109/news_20161109_370453069880.shtml
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4E7/enfile/Att/47993949.pdf
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at-maoming-refinery-a-675515/
[15] https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/sinopec-says-crude-runs-at-maoming-refinery-
hit-record-in-may/
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full-operation-idUSL3E8C55D420120105
cangzhou-oil-refinery
183
[19] http://www.mintaialuminum.com/industry-news/aluminum-foil-oil.html
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daqing-oil-refinery
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unit.html
[26] https://utech-polyurethane.com/news/changling-use-hppo-tech-100kt-plant-
scheduled-h1-2014/
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novel_route_to_propylene_oxide_without_coproducts
194 (2017).
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news_20161109_369226794744.shtml
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news-chinas-sinopec-jiujiang-cuts-run-rate-after-hydrotreater-blast
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jinling-oil-refinery
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Alkylation-Technology.aspx
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nearly-doubles-russian-pipeline-oil-supply
[39] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-types-of-crude-oil-from-Russia
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jinxi-oil-refinery
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Manufacturing_Co_Ltd_/
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184
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plan-overhauls-mainly-in-q1-q2-sources-idUKL3N20Y196
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qilu-oil-refinery
news_20161109_378488319963.shtml
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news_20161109_371976252752.shtm
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ramp-up-alkylation-capacity.html
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changer-in-chinas-oil-industry/
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CGEPTheRiseofChinasIndependentRefineries917.pdf
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chinas-teapot-refineries-ramp-up-oil-imports-idUSKCN1LD0UA
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capacity-to-increase-17
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185
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186
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea
10 AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND

AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA
10.1 PAST AND PRESENT REFINERIES IN AUSTRALIA

The first oil refinery in Australia was at Laverton, Victoria in the 1920s. In the 21st Century
many refineries in Australia have ceased operation. These include both of the refineries in
New South Wales, Kurnell Refinery (closed 2014) and Clyde Refinery (closed 2012). Each
was converted to a terminal. Australia’s ‘Premier State’ no longer has a refinery! Tasmania
never had one, neither did the Northern Territory.
The Caltex Kurnell Refinery at the southern edge of Botany Bay had a refining capacity
of 124500 barrels per day [1]. It had visbreaking and FCC. The Shell Clyde Refinery in
western Sydney had a capacity of 85000 barrels per day [2]. This refinery dated from the
same period as the Laverton Refinery and over the years it had additions such as vacuum
distillation, alkylation and ‘Platforming’ (see the discussion of the Tuscaloosa Refinery in
Alabama in Chapter 4).
187
The Vitol (HQ in Geneva) Geelong Refinery in Victoria was previously operated by Shell
(see Plate 10.1). The capacity is 120000 barrels per day [3]. Some of its refined products
are exported to New Zealand. There are many aviation hobbyists in Australia, and this
refinery is the only one in Australia which produces fuel for piston engine aircraft. The
refinery receives crude oil from Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the UAE [4]. It
also receives some domestic crude.
Plate 10.1. The Shell Geelong Refinery, now the Vitol Shell Refinery, in Victoria.
Image taken from: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=8EAF7098D275287427744A84187
17C41721EC791&thid=OIP.5ruFuqCF_j1921kAAIkukQHaE8&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdbm.thewebconsole.
com%2FS3DB3293%2Fimages%2FGeelong-refinery-abc.jpg&exph=627&expw=940&q=geelong+refinery&sele
ctedindex=1&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=0,1,6
The ExxonMobil Altona Refinery in western Greater Melbourne receives a significant proportion
of its crude oil from the Bass Strait by pipeline [5]. The refinery was commissioned shortly
after WW2 long before oil was discovered in the Bass Strait, and was expanded when Bass
Strait oil was discovered in circa 1970. The refinery, the capacity of which is 100000 barrels
per day [6], also receives crude oil from Asia. Its capabilities include naphtha reforming,
vacuum distillation, FCC and alkylation. The refinery also has ‘benzene saturation’ and here
again ‘saturated’ means ‘aliphatic’. Australian law places a limit on the amount of benzene
in gasoline, and in reforming naphtha to make gasoline blendstock benzene has to be
converted to cyclohexane [7]. Obviously this requires a supply of elemental hydrogen, and
the process involves a catalyst.
188
Community consternation at larger-than-usual but perfectly safe refinery flares has been
reported twice previously in this book, for the LIMA Refinery in the US and for the ENAP
Aconcagua Concón Refinery in Chile. A similar thing happened at the Altona Refinery in
late 2017 [8]. The incident is shown in Plate 10.2 below. There had been a power outage,
and hydrocarbon material the processing of which might have been affected by the outage
was diverted to the flare for safety.
Plate 10.2. Refinery flare at the Altona Refinery in Melbourne, November 17th 2017.
Image taken from: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/altona-refinery-flames-amid-lightning-strikes-in-
melbournes-west/news-story/5e55b0016c680809f7cc530ea1f4a275
The Caltex Bulwer Island Refinery (BP) in Brisbane, Queensland ceased operations in
2015 and was converted to a jet fuel terminal. Its capacity was 100000 barrels per day
[9]. The terminal will enable BP to continue to meet its jet fuel obligations by importing
it from Asia. Still in operation is the Caltex Lytton Refinery, which is also in Brisbane
[10]. It capacity is about the same as that of the former Bulwer Island Refinery. Like the
Altona refinery it practices benzene saturation, a.k.a. benzene hydrogenation, and some of
its gasoline and diesel are sold on to BP to enable it to continue to supply those since the
closure of Bulwer Island. The IOR Energy Eromanga Refinery in western Queensland is a
very small one, 1250 barrels per day, and uses local crude [11]. It sees its role as supplying
an isolated community with its fuel requirements.
The ExxonMobil Port Stanvac (a contraction of ‘Standard Vacuum Oil Company’) Refinery in
Adelaide has not produced since 2003 when it took on mothballed status. Decommissioning
has now begun, and the vertical duct (‘stack’) taking hydrocarbon to the flare has been
189
demolished. Asbestos issues featured in the risk assessment [12]. The BP Kwinana Refinery
near Fremantle in Western Australia has a capacity of 146000 barrels per day and is the
only refinery in WA [13]. It receives domestic crude from offshore North West Australia
as well as foreign crudes from the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia. Australia’s largest
refinery, it is concerned solely with fuels and there is no integrated petrochemical activity
such as polymer production.
Australia’s oil refining capacity is much less than a million barrels per day and as already
stated there is heavy reliance on imported refined products. Over half of this is from Japan
with some from South Korea (as noted in Chapter 8) and some from Singapore.
10.2 NEW ZEALAND

The Marsden Point Refinery, the only one in NZ, has a capacity 107000 barrels per day
[14]. Its crude oil supply is almost entirely imported, about a fifth of it from Qatar and
about a tenth of it from Abu Dhabi [15].There are smaller contributions from other countries
including Iran, Malaysia and Brunei. It was noted earlier in the chapter that NZ receives
some imported refined petroleum product from Australia. There is also some from South
Korea and some from Singapore.
10.3 PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The InterOil Napa Napa Refinery in Port Moresby entered service as relatively recently as
2004 and has a nameplate capacity of 32500 barrels [16] per day, and oil production in
PNG is of this order [17]. Only reforming follows distillation, so it is a hydroskimming
refinery. The domestic crude which the refinery receives is light, API gravity 45 degrees,
and it is also sweet [18].

There are no oil refineries in the small island nations of the Pacific, Fiji, Samoa and so on,
all of which import refined products. Proposals in 2011 for an oil refinery in Tonga, which
would process imported crude oil and sell some of the refined products to other Pacific island
countries, did not come to fruition [19]. It was recognised that the support of Australia
or NZ would be crucial to the success of the proposal. The next chapter will cover the Far
East. Some definitions of that term include three countries having already been discussed,
190
North Korea, South Korea and Indonesia. Far East countries including Brunei, Vietnam,
Malaysia and (in particular) Singapore have made an appearance in the book thus far as
oil producers or as exporters of refined products, so there has in effect been a preamble to
a chapter on the Far East per se.
REFERENCES
[1] https://db0nus869y26v.cloudfront.net/en/Kurnell_Refinery
[2] https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Clyde%20Refinery
[3] https://www.vitol.com/what-we-do/refining/geelong-refinery/
[4] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/geelong-refinery
[5] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/altonarefinery/
[6] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/altona-refinery
[7] https://www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000175,Reducing_benzene____in_gasoline.
html#.XLCIifZFymQ
[8] https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/smoke-from-altona-refinery-in-melbournes-
west-a-safety-measure-as-storm-looms-20171117-gznddp.html
[9] https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-bp-refinery-idUKKBN0OJ0PX20150603
[10] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/27-australia/oil-refining/32-caltex-
lytton-oil-refinery
[11] https://www.ior.com.au/about/eromanga/
[12] https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/south/landmark-port-stanvac-chimney-has-
been-demolished/news-story/fede12fc1b4a67078d9d06af6062f022
[13] https://www.bp.com/en_au/australia/about-us/what-we-do/refining.html
[14] https://www.ogj.com/articles/2017/03/bp-slashes-stake-in-new-zealand-refinery-by-
nearly-half.html
[15] https://freenrg4nz.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/5-new-zealand-oil-imports-and-exports/
[16] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/napanapa/
[17] https://tradingeconomics.com/papua-new-guinea/crude-oil-production?user=olexpb
[18] https://www.santos.com/what-we-do/production/liquids-marketing/kutubu-crude-oil/
[19] https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/195000/tonga-minister-calls-for-
local-oil-refinery
191
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE The Far East
11 THE FAR EAST
11.1 MALAYSIA
A country-by-country analysis will be given, starting with Malaysia. Malaysian refineries are
listed below and comments follow. The Petronas towers (pictured) are very conspicuous,
and even a transit passenger at KL Airport is likely to take away a recollection of them.

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192
Refinery. Capacity/bbl day-1
Melaka I Refinery (Petronas).
114000 [1].
The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Petronas’ own HQ is in Tower 1.
MRC* Melaka II Refinery.
170000 [3].
*Malaysian Refining Corporation.
HQ in Malacca, East Malaysia.
Kerteh Refinery (Petronas). 124000 [6].
Port Dickson Refinery (Hengyuan). 156000 [7].
Port Dickson Refinery (Petron

90000 [12]
Malaysia HQ in Port Dixon).
Kemaman Asphalt Refinery (Tipco). 20000 [15].
The Petronas Melaka I Refinery has no capability beyond atmospheric distillation and
reforming. That does not mean that it is primitive. It receives Malaysian light, sweet crude of
API gravity 43-45 degrees [2], which yields a high proportion of light material without the
need for vacuum distillation. There is also some condensate refining at Melaka I. Melaka II
takes heavier crudes than Melaka I and accordingly has vacuum distillation, delayed coking
and thermal cracking. Melaka 1 and 2 are sometimes regarded as a single refinery with two
193
trains e.g. [4]. In the planning of Melaka II it was not seen as an enlargement of Melaka
I, although the close proximity of the two created opportunities for sharing, for example
of maintenance crews [5]. The capacity figure given for the Petronas Kerteh Refinery is for
light crude, like that received at Melaka I, and condensate. The latter goes to a condensate
splitter, a term that was introduced in Chapter 2 in the discussion of the VPR Refinery in
the Netherlands. There are proposals to develop the Petronas Kerteh Refinery, not to raise
its capacity but to enable it to process a wider range of crude oils. The planners are likely
to work within the paradigm of the Nelson complexity index.
The Hengyuan Port Dickson Refinery was commissioned in 1963, and was a hydroskimming
refinery until Long Residue (residue from atmospheric distillation: residue from vacuum
distillation can be referred to as ‘short residue’[8]) Catalytic Cracking (LRCC) was introduced
there in 1999 [9]. ‘Platforming’ has featured many times in this book, and in Chapter 8 in a
discussion of the Sodegaura Refinery in Japan it was explained how elemental hydrogen from
Platforming™ can be removed for refinery use. This has been the source of hydrogen at the
Hengyuan Port Dickson Refinery. Very soon electrolytic production of hydrogen (‘H2Gen’)
will be introduced at the refinery [10]. 30 tonnes per day of hydrogen will be so produced
at the refinery. It is straightforward to show (refer to [11]) that that will require about 1
GWh of electricity. Such a quantity of electricity purchased at market price in Peninsular
Malaysia would cost ~$US 0.1 million. There is of course more to the cost of H2Gen than
just that of the electricity. For example, considerable pre-treatment of the water is needed.
The Petron Port Dickson Refinery uses imported light sweet crude and is set up for
reforming and hydrotreating [13]. Expansion is planned, but this is of capacity and not of
refining depth so the refinery will remain a hydroskimming refinery [14]. There is no need
to introduce such things as FCC at a refinery where supply of light crude is assured. This
refinery has been in operation for >55 years. The Tipco Kemaman Bitumen Refinery receives
heavy crude oil [15] and its products include what is described in the previous paragraph
in the account of the Hengyuan Port Dickson Refinery ‘short residue’. At the Hengyuan
refinery this is cracked. At the Tipco Kemaman Asphalt Refinery it becomes after asphalt
removal a heavy product for use as a fuel or in making base oils [16].
194
11.2 THAILAND
Details of the refineries are below.
Sriracha Refinery (Thai Oil). 275000 [17].
Rayong Refinery (IRPC). 215000 [18].
Global Chemical Refinery (PTT Group). 280000 [22].
SPRC Refinery (Star Petroleum

165000 [24].
Refining Company).
Bangchak Refinery (Bangchak Petroleum). 120000 [27].
Rayong Purifier Refinery (Rayong

17000 [29].
Purifier Company).
The Thai Oil Refinery in Sriracha, south of Bangkok in the direction of Pattaya, is equipped
with vacuum distillation, reforming, visbreaking and FCC [18] and has a Nelson complexity
index of 9.8. It has been in operation for over 50 years. The IRPC Rayong Refinery is a

mathematics meet.

mathematics.
195
major producer of propylene. It was mentioned earlier in this text that there are different
grades of propylene and that polymer grade is the highest grade. Polymer grade propylene
is made at the Rayong refinery by the Deep Catalytic Cracking (DCC) process [19],[20]
which originated with Sinopec. The difference between FCC and DCC can probably be
seen as one of degree: both take place in a fluidised bed of catalyst particles. DCC uses
a higher temperature than FCC though only by tens of degrees, up to about 580oC in
comparison with around 535oC for FCC [21]. The IRPC Rayong Refinery produces about
30000 tonnes per year of refinery grade propylene by this means. There is also condensate
splitting at this refinery.
The PTT Group Global Chemical Refinery (also in Rayong) receives condensate as well as
crude oil. It usually exports its naphtha product instead of reforming it to gasoline [23].
Recently when naphtha prices dropped it ceased this practice and used the naphtha as a
feedstock for olefin production. LPG from this refinery is put partly to fuel use and the
remainder converted into olefins. There is a good deal of emphasis on olefins at this refinery
and also on aromatics. Starting material for aromatics are reformate from the crude oil
(see the discussion of the SPRC Refinery below) and condensate. Material remaining after
aromatics removal can be processed into the equivalents of distillate products, and this is
done at the Rayong Purifier Refinery which receives 17000 barrels per day of hydrocarbon
so denuded of aromatics. The SPRC Refinery produces polymer grade propylene in addition
to its range of fuel products [25]. It too produces reformate, and a short digression into
reformate more widely follows. It can be sold as blendstock for gasoline or as feedstock
for chemical manufacture, notably aromatics, and can reasonably be seen as beneficiated
crude. If ‘beneficiated’ then more expensive, and it costs typically twice as much per barrel
as crude oil. Reformate is exported from the Gulf Coast [26].
The Bangchak Refinery imports crude oil from the Middle East. Commissioned in 1964,
it was a hydroskimming refinery until 2009 when cracking was introduced, making it a
conversion refinery. The refining capacity will shortly be increased to 130000 barrels per
day [28]. The Rayong Purifier Refinery receives hydrocarbon from which aromatics have
been removed and processes it into the equivalent of light distillates.
11.3 VIETNAM
The Petrovietnam Dung Quat Refinery entered service in 2010 as the first oil refinery in
Vietnam. By that time Vietnam had been producing oil for over 20 years. The capacity of the
refinery is 125000 barrels per day [30]. It processes domestic crude from the offshore Bach
Ho field as well as imported crude. The refinery has vacuum distillation and visbreaking.
Vietnam exports crude oil to countries including the UK [31]. A second refinery for Vietnam,
to be called the Nghi Sơn Refinery, is planned [32]. The target capacity is 200000 barrels
per day and it is expected that it will receive oil from Kuwait.
196
11.4 THE PHILIPPINES

Petron has featured previously in this chapter because of its refinery in Port Dickson,
Malaysia. The Petron Bataan Refinery in Limay, 135 km from Manila, has been in existence
since 1961 and now has a refining capacity of 180000 barrels per day [33]. The Honeywell
Platforming™ Process, previously mentioned in discussion of the Tuscaloosa Refinery in
Alabama and in the discussion of the Balikpapan Refinery in Indonesia, takes place at the
Petron Bataan Refinery, enabling it to produce reformate as well as producing some hydrogen
for refinery use [34]. Sulfolane™, a solvent developed by Shell as noted in earlier chapter,
is used at the refinery as is the Merox™ Process. That is a way of sweetening distillate fuels
[35], and requires a catalyst. The process can be summarised:
2RSH + ½O2 RSSR + H2O
and the disulphide can be separated.
The Shell Tabangao Refinery in Batangas, a little over 100 miles from Manila, has a capacity
of 120000 barrels per day [36] and has atmospheric distillation and reforming capability.
These is also hydrodesulphurisation of distillate fuel. There is asphalt production from the
residue and some of it is exported.
11.5 SINGAPORE
The refineries are listed below.
Refinery. Capacity/barrel day-1.
Jurong Island Refinery (ExxonMobil). 600000 [37].
Jurong Island Refinery (Singapore

290000 [44].
Refining Corporation).
Pulau Bukom Refinery (Royal Dutch Shell). 458000 [45].
197
Plate 11.1 The ExxonMobil Jurong Island Refinery.

Image taken from: https://www.exxonmobil.com.sg/en-sg/company/business-and-operations/operations/
singapore-refinery-overview
Plate 11.1 above shows the ExxonMobil Jurong Island Refinery, which produces fuels across
the range LPG, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and bunker fuel [38]. Some of the naphtha fraction
is reformed to make it suitable for blending with gasoline and some is cracked to produce
ethylene which goes on to be polymerised. There being at the refinery site petrochemical
manufacture which receives feedstock from the refinery, the products are many and varied.
They include synthetic lubricants.
A conventional lubricant has as its base material hydrocarbon liquid originating in the
crude oil, and there will be additions to it to control the viscosity. In the manufacture of a
synthetic lubricant, material from the crude is converted by the Fischer-Tropsch process to
new organic structures which become the lubricant. Fischer-Tropsch is also of course widely
used to make liquid fuels from solid ones e.g. [39] and in the application under discussion
it is extended to lubricants. The synthetic lubricants made in this way at the ExxonMobil
Jurong Island Complex are Mobil 1™and Mobil Delvac™, both for automotive use. Mobil
SHC™, a synthetic grease, is also made there. The absence of wax from the synthesised
organic material used to make the grease is a plus in its use. Some of the residual material
from the ExxonMobil Jurong Island Complex goes into making conventional lubricants.
198
Other processes in use at this refinery include TransPlusSM, production of xylenes from toluene
or C9+ aromatics by transalkylation, disproportionation or dealkylation with a catalyst in
each case. These processes are shown in the figure below.
Processes within the scope of TransPlusSM. Image taken from [40].
In the first example above an alkyl group is transferred from trimethyl benzene to toluene
to give two xylene structures. There has been transfer of an alkyl group, hence the term
‘transalkylation’. In the second, two toluene structures have reacted to form benzene and a
toluene structure. It would not be incorrect to call that transalkylation: a methyl group has
transferred from one toluene molecule to another. The broader term disproportionation is
sometimes used. Here it means that one toluene increases in its degree of substitution (from
1 to 2) and that the other decreases (from 1 to 0). Dealkylation to make benzene from an
alkylbenzene obviously leads to a gaseous hydrocarbon product as shown. The motive for
TransPlusSM is that the products it leads to attract higher prices than toluene [41]. Also at
199
this refinery complex is the XymaxSM Process for production of ethyl benzene by isomerisation
of xylene structures [42]. The ethyl benzene can be dehydrogenated to styrene. The process
was developed by ExxonMobil, and its initial use was at the Jurong refinery [43].
The Singapore Refining Corporation Jurong Island Refinery is the smallest of the three
refineries in Singapore. Its capabilities include naphtha splitting [44]. That means ‘splitting’
the naphtha prior to reforming into two fractions: up to and including C6 and C7 and beyond.
That as a means of removal of benzene is an alternative to conversion of the benzene to
cyclohexane as at the ExxonMobil Altona Refinery (Chapter 10). Pulau Bukom is a small
(approximately 1 square mile) island off the main island of Singapore. The Shell refinery there
has FCC and, like the Hengyuan Port Dickson Refinery in Malaysia, long residue catalytic
cracking. It also has catalytic reforming, alkylation and hydrocracking. It receives not only
crudes across a wide API gravity range but also condensate. It was mentioned earlier in
the book that countries including Japan and NZ import refined petroleum products from
Singapore. 90% of the refined products from the Royal Dutch Shell Pulau Bukom Refinery
are exported [46]. There have been difficulties with thefts of fuel from this refinery [47].
Copenhagen

www.come.ku.dk
200
11.6 OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE REGION

The Thanlyin Refinery in Myanmar, which is owned by Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise,
has a capacity of 20000 barrels per day [48]. It produces gasoline, jet fuel and LPG. There are
plans for a larger and more modern refinery in Myanmar [49]. Myanmar is an oil producer
(~20000 barrels per day) but does not have the means of refining it. At present Myanmar
imports about 10000 barrels per month of refined petroleum products from Singapore. In
Cambodia work on building a refinery in the Kampot Province began in 2013 [50]. There
were initial delays but commencement of refining in circa 2020 is now hoped for. The
capacity will be 40000 barrels per day, with eventual expansion to 100000 barrels per day.
It will at first be entirely dependent on imported oil. It is hoped that onshore production
of oil in Cambodia might follow commissioning of the refinery. The point has been made
[51] that 100% reliance on imported crude oil will jeopardise the viability of the refinery.
In Laos a refinery is under construction in the national capital Vientiane, and the expected
capacity 15000 barrels per day. Again, reduction of imports is the motivation. Laos currently
obtains refined petroleum products from Thailand and from Vietnam.
REFERENCES
[1] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/melaka-i-refinery
[2] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/malaysia-oil-and-gas-profile
[3] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/melaka-ii-refinery
[4] https://www.nrgedge.net/project/melaka-refinery
[5] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/melaka/
[6] https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/petronas-plans-shut-kerteh-refinery-maintenance-
march-—-sources
[7] https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2018/03/10/petronas-plans-to-
upgrade-kerteh-refinery-by-2022/
[8] http://www.kittiwake.com/refinery_process
[9] https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/1999/06/25/82526/shell-starts-up-new-
malaysia-lrcc-unit/
[10] https://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-117/issue-2/general-interest/hengyuan-
refining-approves-unit-for-malaysian-refinery.html
[11] Jones J.C. ‘Numerical Exercises in Fuels and Energy’ Bookboon, Fredericksberg (2019).
[12] https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/petron-malaysia-announces-planned-expansion-at-port-
dickson-refinery/
[13] https://www.petron.com.my/web/site/slider/20
[14] https://business.mb.com.ph/2017/12/31/petron-to-expand-malaysia-refinery-for-3-5-
billion/
201
[15] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/154-malaysia/oil-refining/409-
kemaman-telok-kalong-oil-refinery
[16] https://www.kbc.com.my/
[17] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/thai-oil-refinery
[18] http://www.irpcpetroleum.com/en/Welcome.aspx
[19] https://www.2b1stconsulting.com/shaw-wins-the-contract-for-rayong-irpc-refinery-dcc-
unit/
[20] http://www.processengineer.info/petrochemical/olefins-catalytic-by-the-shaw-group.html
[21] https://www.digitalrefining.com/data/literature/file/1910382268.pdf
[22] http://pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com/about-pttgc/
[23] https://www.pttgcgroup.com/en/markets/refinery
[24] http://investor.sprc.co.th/faq.html
[25] https://market.sec.or.th/public/idisc/en/CompanyProfile/Listed/SPRC
[26] https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/121813-feature-us-
gulf-coast-reformate-prices-higher-on-exports-supply-shortfall
[27] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/bangchak-refinery
[28] http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30336045
[29] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/rayong-purifier-refinery
[30] http://www.pvcoating.vn/en/shareholders/details/dung-quat-refinery-handed-over-to-
petrovietnam-131/
[31] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/dung/
[32] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/nghi-son-oil-refinery-and-
petrochemical-project/
[33] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/petron-bataan-refinery-philippines/
[34] https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2018/07/petron-to-use-uop-technologies-
to-expand-refinery
[35] https://www.uop.com/processing-solutions/refining/diesel-jet/kerojet-fuel-sweetening/
[36] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/192-philippines/oil-refining/481-
shell-batangas-oil-refinery
[37] https://www.exxonmobil.com.sg/en-sg/company/business-and-operations/operations/
singapore-refinery-overview
[38] https://cdn.exxonmobil.com/~/media/singapore/files/business-materials/exxonmobil-
singapore-integrated-manufacturing-complex-brochure.pdf
[39] Jones J.C. ‘Lignites: Their Occurrence, Production and Utilisation’ Whittles Publishing,
Caithness (2016).
[40] https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/catalysts-and-technology-licensing/xylenes-
production/heavy-aromatics-alkylation
[41] https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/catalysts-and-technology-licensing/xylenes-
production/heavy-aromatics-alkylation
[42] https://www.slideshare.net/basheer09/xy-max
202
[43] Comyns A.E. ‘Encyclopedic Dictionary of Named Processes in Chemical Technology,

Fourth Edition’ CRC Press 2014 accessible online as an e-book.
[44] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/singapore-refining-corporation-jurong-island-refinery
[45] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/218-singapore/oil-refining/568-
shell-pulau-bukom-oil-refinery
[46] https://www.shell.com.sg/about-us/projects-and-sites/pulau-bukom-manufacturing-site.
html
[47] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/shell-singapore-pulau-bukom-oil-
stolen-11031806
[48] https://www.industryabout.com/country-territories-3/164-myanmar/oil-refining/428-
mpe-thanlyin-oil-refinery
[49] https://www.mmtimes.com/news/government-reveals-plans-build-first-modern-oil-
refinery-myanmar.html
[50] https://www.construction-property.com/read-news-468/
[51] https://newsbase.com/topstories/cambodia-breaks-ground-first-oil-refinery


203
OIL REFINING: THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE Africa
12 AFRICA
12.1 INTRODUCTION
The African countries with refining capability are discussed in turn in this chapter, with
the exceptions of Algeria, Angola, The Congo, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria. These feature in
the chapter on OPEC countries.
12.2 CAMEROON
The SONARA (Société Nationale de Raffinage ) Limbe Refinery has a capacity of 45000
barrels of oil per day [1]. It is not a conversion refinery, and atmospheric distillate is
accompanied by heavy fuel oil for sale. That was seen as being satisfactory for as long as the
refinery, which came into operation in the early 1980s, was receiving Arabian light crude
[2]. Cameroon now produces oil at offshore fields, and for the Limbe Refinery to process
this will require modifications. To this end, vacuum distillation and hydrocracking are to
be introduced [3]. The first stage of the upgrading of the refinery was installation of a new
atmospheric distillation unit and increase in the storage capacity oil (the first necessitates
the second), and that required closure of the refinery for three months in 2018 [4]. The
refinery re-opened with a raised capacity to await introduction of conversion processes.
12.3 CHAD
There is a refinery in the national capital N’Djamena, which was constructed by CNPC
and commenced operations in 2011 [5]. Its capacity is 20000 barrels per day and it
receives domestic oil from the Bongor Basin. This an unusual refinery and a difficult one
to classify. It has atmospheric distillation and catalytic reforming. It has the means of
hydrogenating refined products. It also obtains propylene from catalytic pyrolysis of heavy
material, and the propylene is polymerised at the refinery location. It is therefore classifiable
as a hydroskimming refinery though with the qualification that it performs supplementary
operations not directed at ‘conversion’.
204
12.4 CÔTE D’IVOIRE

The larger of the two refineries in this African country is the SIR (Société Ivoirienne de
Raffinage) Abidjan Refinery, capacity 71000 barrels per day [6]. It receives domestic crude
as well as imported crude from Nigeria, both across a considerable density range. This has
atmospheric distillation, vacuum distillation and hydrocracking, and as would therefore be
expected good yields of light fuels. Residual fuel oils are amongst its products, and one would
intuitively expect that these would be produced in greater quantity when heavier crudes are
being supplied. There is also the SMB (Societe Multinationale de Bitumes) Abidjan Bitumen
Refinery, capacity 7500 barrels per day [7]. This is largely concerned with road materials as
one would infer. It receives crude for fractionation and clearly its primary products come
from the residue. However the distillate fractions are prepared for sale and marketed, so
SMB are also a supplier of petroleum fuels. As pointed out earlier in the book, refineries
chiefly concerned with residual products sometimes pass the distillate products along to
conventional refineries.
12.5 EGYPT
The refineries are listed below.
MIDOR (Middle East Oil Refinery) Alexandria. 115000 [8].
Wadi Feiran Refinery (El Nasr

10000 [9].
Petroleum Company).
Suez Refinery (Suez Petroleum

65000 [10].
Processing Co.).
Suez El Nasr Petroleum Company

130000 [13].
Refinery a.k.a. the Nasr Reinery.
Amerya Refinery (Ameriya Oil Refining Co.) 80000 [15].
Assiut Refinery (Assiut Oil Refining Co.). 90000 [18].
Cairo Refinery (Egyptian Refining Company). 142000 [19].
Tanta Refinery (Cairo Oil Refining Company). 35000 [20].
Alexandria Refinery (Alexandria

100000 [22].
Petroleum Company).
205
MIDOR has a Nelson complexity index of 11.5 and has been described as ‘the most advanced
oil refinery in Africa’ [9]. It has reforming, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, MeroxTM , delayed
coking and PenexTM. A recent addition to the refinery was a pre-flasher tower, by means
of which some of the lighter material is removed upstream of the crude distillation unit
(CDU). Such material will be in the naphtha boiling range and is likely to be suitable for
further processing, e.g. reforming, as if it had been distilled at the CDU. That is of course
a way of increasing the capacity of a refinery without going to a larger CDU. Before the
installation of pre-flashing, the capacity of MIDOR was 100000 barrels per day.
The Wadi Feiran Refinery in the Sinai Peninsula is a topping refinery, and it is stated in [9] that
its Nelson complexity index is 1.0. The Suez Petroleum Processing Co. Suez Refinery, which
has a Red Sea location, has reforming, vacuum distillation and coking [11]. It receives crude
oil from the Gulf of Suez oil fields. Such oil typically has an API gravity of 27.5 degrees [12].
The Nasr Refinery is situated on the Suez Canal. It is the oldest oil refinery in Africa, having
entered service in 1913 in order to receive oil from the Gulf of Suez oil fields referred to above.
It was operated as a hydroskimming refinery, having just atmospheric distillation and reforming,
until the early 2010s when hydrocracking was introduced there [14]. In [14] the Nasr Refinery
is described as a ‘topping and reforming refinery’, a satisfactory synonym for ‘hydroskimming
refinery’. The Amerya Refinery in Alexandria receives crude oil from the Western Desert oil
fields. Some of the oil from this source is particularly waxy [16] and wax separation takes place
at the Amerya Refinery. API gravities of Western Desert oil are in the approximate range 30 to
40 degrees [17]. The refinery is well set up for residuum conversion, and that follows dewaxing.
The Assiut Refinery, shown in Plate 12.1, also receives crude from the Gulf of Suez oil fields.
It is close to the Nile and can receive crude oil by barge.
Plate 12.1. Assiut Refinery in Egypt.
The Cairo Refinery has been in service since the 1970s and has recently had a major
extension equipping it with vacuum distillation and hydrocracking, to enable it to produce
206
more light material. Diesel in particular is a desired product. At the Tanta Refinery, the
only post-fractionation processing is hydrotreating [21]. The author has been unable to find
a value for its Nelson complexity index, but one can deduce that it will not exceed unity
by much. The Alexandria Refinery in the final row of the table has vacuum distillation,
reforming and dewaxing amongst other operations.
12.6 GHANA
The Tema Refinery near Accra, the only oil refinery in Ghana, has a capacity of 45000
barrels per day [23] and it has RFCC (see the discussion of the Indonesian Cilacap Refinery
in Chapter 3). It receives crude oil from Nigeria with API gravities in the approximate
range 30 to 35 degrees. There have been inter-related operating and financial issues at this
refinery and a number of shutdowns [24]. Ghana produces offshore oil, notably at the
Jubilee Field which commenced production in 2009. It is hoped that oil from these might
replace the imported oil which the Tema Refinery currently receives, and that will require
a stable regime the refinery [25]. A point which arises in one’s mind is that oil from the
Jubilee field is light - API gravity ~38 degrees [26] – so RFCC as a means of residuum
conversion might be overkill.


207
12.7 KENYA
The Kenya Petroleum Mombasa Refinery, which has not operated since 2013, has a capacity
of 80000 barrels per day [27]. The sole refinery in Kenya, it is located in Mombasa instead
of in the national capital Nairobi because Nairobi is about 500 km from the sea. It received
oil from the UAE and from Saudi Arabia. In June 2018, a consignment of domestic crude
oil from Turkana arrived by motor truck at the refinery site (a journey of 1000 km) [28].
The idea is not that it will be refined but that it will be stockpiled and put on the market
for export. This is the first oil production in Kenya. It is intended that by circa 2022 some
of the oil from Turkana will be refined in Kenya. Meanwhile Kenya continues to rely on
imported refined products [29]. Plate 12.2 below shows trucks departing Turkana with
crude oil for storage at the former refinery in Mombasa.
Plate 12.2. Oil departing Turkana in Kenya for stockpiling in Mombasa.

Image taken from: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/Turkana-in-big-dreams-as-oil-export-kicks-
off/539546-4605734-u6v24vz/index.html
12.8 MOROCCO
There is at present no oil refining in Morocco. There was until 2015 when the The Samir
(Société Anonyme Marocaine de l’industrie du Raffinage) Mohammedia Refinery closed
down [30]. Its capacity was 125000 barrels per day [31], and it obtained crude oil from
sources including Saudi Arabia and Russia. Samir also had another refinery, the Sidi Kacem
Refinery, over the period 1961-2008. Its capacity was 50000 barrels per day [32]. Morocco
produces about 160000 barrels per day of crude oil [33]. Having no refining capacity at
present, she imports no crude oil.
208
12.9 SENEGAL
The Societe Africaine de Raffinage Refinery in Senegal has a capacity of 25000 barrels per
day. It receives light crudes from Nigeria [34]. It has vacuum distillation at capacity 7000
barrels per day. These data provide input for a calculation similar to that in section 2.1 of
the book, and this is in the boxed area below.
A fraction (7/25) = 0.28 of the material from atmospheric distillation goes on

to vacuum distillation. Using an incremental factor of 2 for vacuum distillation
[35], the Nelson complexity index on the basis of these two processes is:
1 + (0.28 × 2) = 1.56
Catalytic reforming is the only other operation which would need to be included
in a full calculation of the Nelson complexity index of this refinery. The breakdown
below is generic and does not relate to the crudes received at the refinery
under consideration. There is the difficulty that pie charts for products from
refining oil often do not give a figure for naphtha but include it in the amount
of gasoline, as the fate of naphtha is usually reforming to gasoline.
Image from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+much+naphtha+from+

a+barrel+of+light+crude++oil%3F&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUK
Ewj7nKvg9OPhAhUKRhUIHe9rB7EQ_AUIECgD&biw=1364&bih=923#imgrc=T
OzWCWHyLXDXZM:
If the value of 11% is used for the proportion of naphtha at the

Senegal refinery and it is assumed that all of the naphtha undergoes
reforming, the full Nelson complexity index becomes:
1.56 + (0.11 × 5) = 2.1
where, as in the calculation in section 2.1, a value of 5 is used for the

increment for reforming. Note that the percentage residue in the scheme
above corresponds to the calculated percentage of the material at the Senegal
refinery which is vacuum distilled. That augurs well for the calculation.
209
12.10 SOUTH AFRICA

The four refineries in South Africa are listed in the table below, which is followed by
comments.
Caltex Cape Town Refinery (Caltex). 110000 [36].
Engen Durban Refinery (Petronas). 125000 [39].
Natref Sasolburg Refinery (Sasol and TOTAL). 108500 [40].
Sapref Durban Refinery (Shell and BP). 180000 [41].
The Caltex Cape Town Refinery entered service in 1965 [37] which was, of course, during
the apartheid regime. It used Middle East oil. At the present time South Africa imports
large amounts of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Angola and smaller amounts
from other countries including Iran, Iraq and the UAE [38]. The Engen Durban Refinery
is able to receive crude oil at Richards Bay on the KwaZulu Natal coast.
This e-book
SetaPDF
www.setasign.com
210
The Natref Sasolburg Refinery is about 40 miles from Johannesburg. Unlike the other three
refineries in the table therefore, it is not at a port location and as described below obtains
crude oil from the same tanker deliveries as the two refineries in KwazuluNatal. It receives
heavy crude oil and has catalytic reforming, FCC and hydrocracking meaning that a good
conversion depth is obtained. The Sapref Durban Refinery is the largest oil refinery in South
Africa. It receives crude oil from the Middle East, Europe and Africa [42]. Tankers bearing
crude oil are attached to a single buoy mooring (SBM) about 2 miles from the coast, and
the oil transferred from the vessel to storage tanks onshore by pipeline. The Engen, Sapref
and Natref refineries are all supplied with crude transferred at this SBM. Plate 12.3 shows
the VLCC Opalia at the SBM. Opalia can hold 2 million barrels of crude.
Plate 12.3. Oil tanker Opalia at the SBM close to the KwazuluNatal coast.
12.11 SUDAN
Here again a tabular presentation will be given.
Khartoum Refinery (Khartoum Refinery Co). 100000 [44].
Port Sudan Refinery (CNPC). 21700 [46] prior to recent decommissioning.
El Obeid Refinery (CNPC). 10000 [48].
211
The Khartoum Refinery receives domestic crude oil, Fula heavy crude and Nile Blend. They
are processed separately and differently. Usually delayed coking, a term which has featured
several times previously in this book, is carried out on residual material. Sometimes it is
carried out on crude oil, and this is so at the Khartoum Refinery [45]. Blended crude from
Fula-North A and Fula-North B has an API gravity of 20 degrees, so is rather heavy. It is
fed to a delayed coking unit, and light products including naphtha and diesel are obtained.
There is also petroleum coke as a solid residue. On the other hand the Nile Blend crude
received at the Khartoum Refinery is conventionally fractionated, and there is reforming and
RFCC. The reason for the decommissioning of the Port Sudan Refinery was its unsuitability
to process, in addition to Nile Blend, DAR Blend crude. DAR Blend crude, which originates
in Sudan, has an unusually high acidity because of the naphthenic acids which it contains.
An example of such an acid is the structure below.
Example of a naphthenic acid such as occur in acidic crude oils.
That has made for corrosion issues at refineries and has precluded processing of DAR Blend
crude at the Port Sudan Refinery. DAR Blend is made unattractive to purchasers not by its
API gravity or its sulphur content neither of which is out of the ordinary, only its acidity.
Marketing of DAR Blend crude is limited to countries with refineries which can take it. It
attracts a price $25-28 per barrel below Nile Blend [47]. Monthly exports of DAR crude
are > 4 million barrels. Recipient countries include China.
The CNPC El Obeid Refinery is a topping refinery. There are not at the refinery the means
to make distillate in the boiling range of jet fuel conform to the standards to which apply
to jet fuels. Such standards include ASTM D5453 which appertains to sulphur content and
ASTM D4052 which appertains to density. Jet fuel for the airport at El Obeid therefore
has to come from the Khartoum Refinery, a distance of about 215 miles.
12.12 TANZANIA
Kenya and Tanzania have a 480 mile border. Sometimes when the history of 20th Century
Africa is reviewed the point is made that whereas Kenya after independence became
prosperous Tanzania did not. The sole refinery in Kenya is not currently in service, as
reported previously in this chapter. Tanzania entered the oil refining business only in the
2010s, with the Bagamoyo Refinery in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). It receives crude
oil by pipeline from Uganda [49].
212
12.13 TUNISIA
The Bizerte Refinery about 40 miles from the national capital Tunis is a hydroskimming
refinery of capacity 34000 barrels per day [50]. It receives domestic crude oil from the Belli
oil field. This has the remarkably high API gravity of 48 degrees [51], making it comparable
to natural gas condensate. For such a crude a hydroskimming refinery is probably all that
is needed. There is no need for ‘conversion’. It receives further domestic crude from the
Al-Manzah field. By definition, a hydroskimming refinery has reforming capability. The
reformer at the Bizerte Refinery is equipped with a Packinox heat exchanger [52] into
which naphtha is passed in readiness for reaction to reformate and hydrogen. A Packinox
heat exchanger is a plate heat exchanger, in which fluid passage is not through pipes as
with a parallel-flow or a counter-flow double pipe heat exchanger, (respectively PFDP and
CFDP) or in an enclosed bundle of tubes as with a shell-and-tube (S&T) heat exchanger
but between plates. This makes for effective heat exchange, expressible as a small difference
between the exit temperature of the cold fluid and the entry temperature of the hot fluid.
In a single Packinox heat exchanger receiving naphtha for reforming, this difference can
be as low as 10oC [53]. Several S&T heat exchangers in series would be necessary for a
comparable performance.
12.14 SMALL REFINERIES IN OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES

The 18000 barrels-per-day refinery in Eritrea, at Assab on the Red Sea coast, has not been
in operation since the 1990s. Its products went partly to Ethiopia. In the chapter on OPEC
countries, it was pointed out that the fact that Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela both have
Spanish as the primary language boded well for Venezuelan input to a refinery in Equatorial
Guinea. In the commissioning of the refinery at Assab personnel from the Soviet Union were
engaged, and there were communication issues with local recruits [54]. The refinery used
crude oil from Iraq and from Kuwait. The Toamasina Refinery in Madagascar operated from
1966 to 2008, having a capacity of 12000 barrels per day [55]. It was a hydroskimming
refinery and received crude oil from Qatar and from Iran. The Nouadhibou Refinery in
Mauritania was commissioned in 1987 and is still in operation [56]. It has a capacity of
10000 barrels per day and receives light crude from Algeria. The Zinder Refinery in Niger
(also currently producing) has a capacity of 20000 barrels per day and receives domestic oil
from the Agadem oil field [57]. There has been no oil refining in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo since 1998, when the refinery known as Société Congo-Italienne de Raffinage
(SOCIR) located in Muanda ceased production [58]. It was not demolished.
213
12.15 GENERAL AFTERWORD

The chapter on Africa concludes this region by region coverage of refineries. Across the
book well over 500 refineries have been described in terms of their locations, capacities and
capabilities. Though comprehensiveness has been aimed for the book is not intended to
be a directory of refineries, and any discrepancy between the number of refineries featuring
in the book and the total number of refineries in the world does not signify omission or
deficiency. The hierarchy from a topping refinery to a deep conversion refinery has received
some emphasis. Prophecies of energy supply put the 2050 figure for oil production at around
half the current figure (e.g. [59], which predicts ~45 million barrels per day for 2050). A
book about oil refining in the mid-21st Century will probably need to hold refinery operation
in balance with recent decommissioning.
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[1] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/limbe-refinery
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html
[4] https://www.businessincameroon.com/construction/2404-7991-sonara-starts-a-3-month-
scheduled-stoppage
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[6] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/abidjan-refinery
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suez-oil-refinery
[11] http://www.egpc.com.eg/PDF/Refinary_Pdfs/Suiz.pdf
[12] https://egyptoil-gas.com/features/light-crude-vs-heavy-crude-a-continuously-narrowing-gap/
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[16] Harb F.M., El Nady M.M. ‘Bulk Geochemical Characteristics of Crude Oils from Wells
in the North Western Desert, Egypt’ Petroleum Science and Technology 28 731-737 (2010).
[17] El Bassoussi Ali A., El-sabagh S. M., Harb F.M. El Nady M.M. ‘Characterization and
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214
[19] https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/mostadrefinery/
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tanta-oil-refinery
[21] https://mbendi.co.za/indy/oilg/ogrf/af/p0005.htm
[22] http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/alexandria-refinery
[23] http://www.tor.com.gh/about-tor/company-profile/
[24] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/The-Way-Forward-For-
The-Tema-Oil-Refinery-197072#
[25] https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/The-Way-Forward-For-
The-Tema-Oil-Refinery-197072#
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pdf?sfvrsn=0
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raffinage-_-sep-2014.pdf
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215
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[59] http://peakoilbarrel.com/world-energy-2016-2050-annual-report/
216

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What regions and countries does the document discuss regarding oil refining?

What regions and countries does the document discuss regarding oil refining?

Prof. Dr J.

PROF. DR. J. CLIFFORD JONES

OIL REFINING: THE

2 The EU and non-EU European countries 12

3 The OPEC countries and former OPEC countries 46

4 The USA and Canada 75

5 Central America, South America and the Caribbean 118

6 The Former Soviet Union 136

7 The Indian Subcontinent 146

8 Japan, South Korea and North Korea 158

9 China, Taiwan and Mongolia 172

10 Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea 187

11 The Far East 192

Eileen Fletcher (Bowyer)

at the time of her 90th birthday.

Ken Rivers June 2019

Ken Rivers is currently President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. His

API gravity (degrees) = (141.5/density relative to water) - 131.5

2 THE EU AND NON-EU

2.1 COUNTRY-BY COUNTRY COVERAGE OF THE EU

Schwechat Refinery (Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung

The location of two of the largest oil refineries in Europe:

LUKOIL Neftochim Refinery at Burgas 194000

Rijeka Refinery (Industrija Nafte a.k.a. INA) 90000

Cyprus. No current activity. Previously oil refining at Lanarca [14].

Litvinov Refinery (Unipetrol RPA) 120000 bbl per day [16].

Kalundborg Refinery (Equinor) 110000 bbl per day. Also

Porvoo Refinery (Neste) 206000 bbl per day [23].

Nine refineries in operation ranging in capacity from 0.35

Aspropyrgos Refinery (Hellenic Petroleum) 148000 bbl per day

Szazhalombatta Refinery (Magyar OLaj- és Gázipari

Ireland. Whitegate Refinery (Irving Oil) 75000 bbl per day [82].

Sarpom Trecate Novara Refinery (ExxonMobil et al.) 250000 bbl

Lithuania. Mazeikiai Refinery (PKN Orlen) 290000 bbl per day [108].

Slagen Refinery (ExxonMobil) 110000 bbl per day [121].

Plock Refinery (PKN Orlen) 330000 bbl per day [123]. Gdansk

Porto Refinery (Galp Energia) 110000 bbl per day [127].

Petrobrazi Refinery Ploieşti (Petrom/OMV) 90000 bbl per day [131].

Slovnaft Bratislava Refinery (MOL), 110,000 bbl per day [144].

Bilbao Refinery (Petronor) 22000 bbl per day [149]. Puertollano

Refineries at Lysekil and Gothenburg (both

Switzerland. Cressier Refinery 68000 bbl per day [166].

England. Fawley Refinery (ExxonMobil) 330000 bbl per

Wales. Pembroke Refinery (Valero) 215000 bbl per day [175].

EU countries and their oil refining details.

WHY WAIT FOR

Atmospheric distillation sets a baseline Nelson complexity index of 1.0.

1.0 + (0.10 × 5) = 1.5

1.0 + (0.20 × 5) = 2.0

Apply by World class

Plate 2.5 Oil tanker Hermione in the Port of Livorno.

How will people travel in the future, and

2 × 103 kg × 43 × 106 J kg-1/(8 × 3600 s) = 3 MW 600000 lumens

Plate 2.6. Petrobrazi Refinery in Ploieşti, Romania.

A traveller from Spain to Gibraltar is required to go through passport control at La Linea

2 The EU and non-EU European countries 12

3 The OPEC countries and former OPEC countries 46

5 Central America, South America and the Caribbean 118

8 Japan, South Korea and North Korea 158

9 China, Taiwan and Mongolia 172

10 Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea 187

Ken Rivers June 2019

2 THE EU AND NON-EU

3 THE OPEC COUNTRIES AND