Humber Refinery

Humber Refinery at South Killingholme

The Humber Refinery is a British oil refinery in South Killingholme, North Lincolnshire. 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 ICHP 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 refinery's non-destructive testing is carried out by Oceaneering.

2001 explosion

Main article: 2001 Humber Refinery 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.

See also

• South Killingholme
• Greater Grimsby

External links

• ConocoPhillips page
• UK Petroleum Industry Association page
• Institute of Petroleum page
• Hydrocarbons Technology page
• HSE report into April 2001 accident
• Picture of Humber refinery

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