Shell UK Ltd
Shell Haven Refinery
Stanford-le-Hope
Essex SS17 9LD
Tel: 01375 673333
Fax: 01375 653547
Shell Haven became linked with the oil industry in 1912 when a provisional licence was obtained by Asiatic Petroleum Company Limited to store a maximum of 80,000 tonnes of petroleum. Refinery operations began on a 100 acre site in 1916 with a Trumble Distillation Plant which produced fuel oil for the Admiralty. In 1919 this unit was converted to manufacture road surfacing bitumen. In 1925, a bench still was erected for the manufacture of lubricating oils. The first high viscosity index oils were produced in 1937, whilst a Paraffin Wax Plant producing high grade wax for candles, paper, etc. was commissioned in 1946. These plants have now been demolished.
Post-war expansion started on a 1,000 acre site west of the original refinery in 1947 with the construction of a Distillation Unit designed for Middle East crude oil. This unit was brought on-stream in 1950.
In 1956 the first Platformer Unit was brought into service and in the same year, a petroleum chemicals unit to manufacture alkylbenzenes, the basis of household detergents, started up. A second crude distillation unit was commissioned in 1959, followed by a gas oil Hydrodesulphuriser and a second Platformer in 1967.
All the above units apart from the first crude distillation unit have been retired.
A kerosine hydrotreater was commissioned in 1972 and in 1977 a third Platformer, a continuous regeneration unit, was brought on stream.
A Hydrocracking Unit (1979) provided a considerable increase in the proportion of light distillates in the product mix; a new Bitumen Plant started production in 1981.
In 1992, a major capital investment was completed, adding a Naphtha Minus Complex which contains an Isomerisation Unit, benzene recovery and gas turbine power generation. A new Control Centre was added allowing a number of old control rooms to be retired. The Kerosine hydrotreater was converted to a hydrodesulphuriser.
Shell Haven currently has a capacity of 4.6 million tonnes per annum.
The refinery delivers products by road and ship and has access to the Thames/Mersey pipeline of United Kingdom Oil Pipelines Limited.