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Coryton (BP)BP Coryton Refinery
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Coryton in Essex is 30 miles from London near the mouth of the Thames. Because of its excellent road, rail and deep water facilities, there was an oil storage depot on this historic site for many years before the refinery first came into operation in 1953.
Designed to produce a range of automotive and industrial fuels as well as lubricating oil base stocks, the initial capacity was just under a million tons. Two major expansions since then have increased that capacity by ten times as much.
A £240 million Residual Upgrading Project was completed in 1982. Units added to the refinery by this modernisation include a Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit, an Alkylation Unit, an Unsaturated Gas Plant, an Isomerisation Unit and Sulphur Units. A new 350 feet flare stack, new storage tanks and pipework, and a fifth jetty are further additions to the existing refinery. Refining capability was further enhanced by the streaming of a CCR unit in 1989.
Crude oil storage totals over four million barrels and supplies are received from 250 000 tons dwt. vessels operating a two-port discharge system with other refineries in Europe.
Product tankage has also been increased, some of it to feed into the U.K.O.P. pipeline which starts nearby and runs from the Thames to the Mersey. At the adjacent bulk terminal, there is a high speed lance loading system and hydraulic control of rail car movements.
Lubricating oil base stocks are shipped from Coryton by sea and road to the company's blending works at Birkenhead.
Lubrication oil production facilities at the refinery include propane de-asphalting, furfural treating, M.E.K. de-waxing and hydrofinishing.
Bitumen production was added in 1974, with a capacity of 200 000 tons per year.
The refinery generates its own steam and some of its electric power and a sixth boiler has been added as part of the Residual Upgrading project.
Mobil's U.K. Research and Technical Services Laboratory is located at the Coryton Refinery site.
At the end of 1993 Coryton streamed its new C5/C6 Isomerisation Unit.