Stanlow Refinery
Coordinates: 53°16′22″N 2°50′24″W / 53.27278°N 2.84°W{{#coordinates:53|16|22|N|2|50|24|W|type:landmark_region:GB-CHS |primary |name= }}
Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. It was previously owned by Royal Dutch Shell and is part of the Shell Stanlow Manufacturing Complex.
History
The refinery occupies nearly 1,900 acres (7.7 km2) near the River Mersey and dates back to 1924, when a small bitumen plant was established.[1]
In the 1970s an oil pipeline was constructed from Amlwch, Anglesey to Stanlow. Crude oil was pumped ashore from tankers moored at deep-water pontoons. The pipeline closed in the early 1980s.[2]
Crude oil is now received lower down river on the Mersey at the Tranmere Oil Terminal, operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board from its Liverpool headquarters, and is transferred via a fifteen mile (24 km) pipeline to storage at Stanlow. Output is delivered by pipeline via the UK oil pipeline network, road and the Manchester Ship Canal.
Stanlow and Thornton railway station serves employees and visitors of the refinery.
The Stanlow refinery was reported as being for sale by the Financial Times[3] in August 2009, with possible purchasers including India's Essar Oil, USA's Valero and the Libyan Government. The reason for the proposed sale was cited as its size (272,000 bbd), although Shell executives indicated that if no sale could be agreed, it was their intention to continue to operate the refinery and not to close it.
Statistics
Storage capacity: 2 million tonnes of crude oil and products [1]
Refining capacity: 12 million tonnes per year. The manufacturing complex employs 800 people.
- Product output
- petrol 3 million tonnes
- diesel 3.5 million tonnes
- kerosene/jet fuel 2 million tonnes
- LPG & petrochemical feedstocks 1.5 million tonnes
- Fuel oil 1 million tonnes
Cultural references
In 1980, the British synth pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark featured a song about the refinery called "Stanlow" on their second album, Organisation.
Jesu's 2007 album Conqueror features a track titled "Stanlow" that concerns itself with the refinery.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Interactive Guide to UK Refineries: Stanlow (Shell), energyinst.org.uk, http://www.energyinst.org.uk/education/refineries/stanlow.htm, retrieved 28 August 2007
- ↑ Sallery,, Dave, The Associated Octel Company and the Amlwch branch, http://www.penmorfa.com/Archive/one.html, retrieved 1 August 2008
- ↑ Financial Times, London, "Essar bids for Shell refineries", 18 August 2009
External links
- Stanlow United Website of the Stanlow unionised workforce.
| |||||||||||
