Wood River Refinery

File:Wood River.jpg

Wood River Refinery looking west towards the Mississippi River.

The Wood River Refinery is a oil refinery located in Roxana, Illinois, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri, on the east side of the Mississippi River. The refinery is currently owned by ConocoPhillips and Cenovus Energy, and operated by the joint-venture company WRB Refining, LLC (WRB). WRB was formed in 1 July 2007, with Encana taking a 49 percent interest in Wood River and also ConocoPhillips’ Borger refinery (Encana subsequently spun off heavy oil producer Cenovus). In return for 49% stake in the refinery, ConocoPhillips gained a joint interest in two Alberta heavy oil projects - Christina Lake and Foster Creek. Both are operated by Cenovus using SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) technology.

The complex is capable of refining 306,000 barrels (48,700 m³) of crude oil per day and is the largest refinery operated by ConocoPhillips. Oil is supplied from the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, and domestic sources through pipelines. The facility produces 165,000 barrels per day (26,200 m³/d) of gasoline, 90,000 barrels per day (14,000 m³/d) of diesel and jet fuels, as well as other products including asphalt, propane, and chemical feedstocks.

An expansion project (CORE project) is currently under way at the refinery, aimed at increasing processing of heavier crudes, and includes installation of a new coker unit. The project is expected to be completed by 2011. The expansion was undertaken specifically to handle heavy oil from Alberta.

Wood River Refinery was originally built by Shell in 1917. In the late 1990s Shell and Texaco merged their downstream segments to form the Motiva (with Saudi national oil company Saudi ARAMCO) and Equilon joint ventures. During a prolonged period of low refining profit margins, Equilon sold the refinery to Tosco in 2003. Shortly thereafter Phillips Petroleum acquired Tosco. When Conoco and Phillips merged, the refinery became an asset of ConocoPhillips. Multiple ownership of refineries is not uncommon in the United States, where many refineries (in original form) predate WWII.

See also

• List of oil refineries
• ConocoPhillips
• Cenovus Energy

External links

• ConocoPhillips website
• Cenovus's Wood River refinery
• Cenovus's technology: SAGD

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