| Humber Refinery South Killingholme Refinery |
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Refinery from Nicholson Road |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Province | North Lincolnshire |
| City | South Killingholme |
| Coordinates | |
| Refinery details | |
| Owner(s) | ConocoPhillips |
| Commissioned | December 1969 |
| Capacity | 130,000 bbl/d (21,000 m3/d) |
The Humber Refinery is a British oil refinery in South Killingholme, North Lincolnshire. It is situated south of the railway line next to the A160; Total's Lindsey Oil Refinery is north of the railway line.
It is situated approximately ten miles north west of Grimsby, and processes approximately 221,000 barrels (35,100 m3) of crude oil per day. It is owned by ConocoPhillips. ConocoPhillips is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and is the largest refiner of oil in the USA.
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At the time of construction Continental Oil (Conoco) owned the Jet distributor of petrol. Jet was formed in 1953 and was based nearby in Keadby in northern Lincolnshire. In June 1961 Continental Oil bought Jet Petroleum, and its 400 garages. In 1960 Continental had bought the German petrol company Sopi, and its 300 garages.
The refinery was first planned in July 1964, and in August 1964 it was expected to cost £15 million, and to be operational by late 1966.
Construction started in August 1966. It was built for Continental Oil (U.K.) Ltd, based in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was originally estimated to cost £25 million but cost twice that. It was built by Power-Gas Corporation, a subsidiary of Sheffield-based Davy-Ashmore who had a £22 million contract. It should have been built by November 1968, and the delay in completion was blamed on bad weather in the summer of 1968, and the 1968/9 winter. Davy-Ashmore lost £12 million on the project. The railway sidings were installed by the Ward Group of Sheffield. 75 miles of steel tubing were built by the Corby steel works for £250,000. In September 1967 there were gales across the country and a man was killed on the site when an engineering shed fell on him. In October 1967 there was a strike, and 120 workers in the Constructional Engineers Union were sacked. In January 1968 a 20-year-old worker from Dublin was killed when a 275-ton coke drum, being raised by a twin jib rig onto a gantry, fell 50 feet to the ground, causing the worker to be crushed by a crane.
The £330,000 18 mile underground pipeline from Tetney was made by O'Connor and Davies, part of British Steel Constructions. Six coke silos were built by Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd in a £200,000 contract.
It opened in July 1969, producing around 80,000 barrels per day (13,000 m3/d). At the time of its opening Britain was using around 83,000 tons of petroleum coke a year, most of which was imported, and used in aluminium smelting. Much of the crude oil came from Libya, as Continental Oil had large discoveries there, and also in Dubai.
The refinery had its own fire brigade. This was used on 8 August 1972 when there was a fire, with 50 feet flames, and a 49-year-old man from Grimsby was killed.
In the mid-1970s there was a £45 million expansion of the plant to take its processing output to 130,000 barrels per day (21,000 m3/d). At this time, around a third of the oil it processed came from the North Sea. It was the first refinery to receive oil from British National Oil Corporation's (Britoil) Thistle field on 15 April 1978.
In the mid-1990s Conoco invested £500 million in the plant.
The notable areas of operation include an alkylation plant, the UK's only premium petroleum coke (for smelting steel) 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. It is the world's largest producer of specialty graphite cokes. It is the largest anode coke producer in Europe.
Crude oil arrives by tanker at Tetney in East Lindsey, then stored at the Tetney oil terminal, before being pumped underground to the refinery for refining.
130,000 barrels (21,000 m3) 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.
The refinery's non-destructive testing is carried out by Oceaneering.
Since November 1 2004, power for both the Humber and Lindsey Oil Refinery (owned by Total), has come from the nearby £300 million 734MWe CHP Immingham Power Station, owned by ConocoPhillips. This was improved to produce 1,180 MW from summer 2009. Next-door to the north is also the Killingholme Power Station.
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.[1]
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