Humber Refinery

The Humber Refinery is an oil refinery in South Killingholme, North Lincolnshire, England. [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/521110 Situated] approximately ten miles north west of Grimsby, it processes approximately 234,000 barrels of crude oil per day and is owned by ConocoPhillips.

Operations

The notable areas of operation include an alkylation plant, the UK's only premium petroleum coke processing facility including three calcination rotary tunnels. 700,000 tonnes of petroleum coke are produced each year. 70% of the refined oil is for UK use, the rest is exported to mainland Europe.

14,000,000 litres of petrol are produced per day, most of which is loaded onto tanker lorries at Immingham Dock. A purpose-built warehouse on the docks stores the petroleum coke before it is shipped out.

Since November 1 2004, power for both the Humber and Lindsey Oil Refinery (owned by Total), has come from the nearby 734MWe CHP Immingham Power Station, owned by ConocoPhillips. This will be improved to produce 1,180MW from summer 2009. Next-door to the north is also the Killingholme Power Station.

The [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/521120 refinery] 's non-destructive testing is carried out by Oceaneering.

2001 explosion

In April 2001, a large explosion occurred on the Saturate Gas Plant area of the site. ConocoPhillips was investigated and subsequently fined £895,000 and ordered to pay £218,854 costs by the Health and Safety Executive for failing to effectively monitor the degradation of the refineries' pipework. The company pleaded guilty to these charges in court and has since implemented a Risk Based Inspection programme. [ [http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2005/e05089.htm ConocoPhillips Ltd fined] -Health & Safety Executive website]

ee also

* South Killingholme

References

External links

* [http://www.conocophillips.com/about/worldwide_ops/country/europe/uk.htm ConocoPhillips page]
* [http://www.ukpia.com/industry_information/refining_uk_refineries/refineries/conocophillips_humber_refinery.aspx UK Petroleum Industry Association page]
* [http://www.energyinst.org.uk/education/refineries/humber.htm Institute of Petroleum page]
* [http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/humber Hydrocarbons Technology page]
* [http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2005/e05159.htm HSE report into April 2001 accident]