The Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery ( es, Refinería de Gibraltar-San Roque) is an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

owned by

CEPSA Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.U. (''Spanish Petroleum Company''), commonly known as Cepsa, is a Spanish multinational oil and gas company. It operates in several European countries as well as in Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Morocco, Braz ...

located on the north shore of the

Bay of Gibraltar The Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeciras), is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay. It opens to the south into the Strait ...

, in Guadarranque

Industrial Estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

, between

Puente Mayorga Puente Mayorga is a coastal village and district of the municipality of San Roque of the Province of Cádiz, Andalucia, Spain. Although it belongs administratively to San Roque, it is three kilometres south of the centre and is located on the Bay ...

and the

Guadarranque The Guadarranque ( es, Río Guadarranque) is a short coastal river of Spain in the Andalusian ''comarca'' of Campo de Gibraltar in the province of Cádiz. It is impounded to form the Embalse de Guadarranque. Its name is derived from the Arab '' ...

river, in the municipality of San Roque, Cadiz, Spain. It is located next to the

Los Barrios Power Plant The Los Barrios Power Plant coal-fired power station is based on the Rankine Cycle. It is located in the municipality of Los Barrios Los Barrios is a small town and municipality in the south of Spain. It is part of the province of Cádiz, which i ...

, which is a coal fueled power station. It is the largest refinery in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, with a crude oil daily processing capacity of 240,000 barrels per day. The refinery occupies 150 acres and has a refining capacity of 12 million tons per year, making it the largest Spanish refinery. The Spanish Government has been accused of having built the refinery deliberately in an effort to negatively affect the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, although pollution is indiscriminate and it also affects a large Spanish population in southern Spain. The results of local air samples by both the Gibraltar and Spanish NGOs and environmental groups are regularly reported to the relevant European Union institutions. Apart from imposing fines on the wealthy CEPSA conglomerate, no other real action is taken. As of 2018 work began on using Detal technology which will produce

linear alkylbenzene Linear alkylbenzenes (sometimes also known as LABs) are a family of organic compounds with the formula C6H5CnH2n+1. Typically, ''n'' lies between 10 and 16, although generally supplied as a tighter cut, such as C12-C15, C12-C13 and C10-C13, for de ...

, work will take around two years to complete.

Products produced

The refinery currently produces propane, butane, gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel oil and fuel oil.

Safety record

On May 27, 1985, a Japanese ship called ''Petragen One'' docked in the refinery and was unloading 20,000 tons of

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ''n ...

, which exploded and also caused the Spanish tanker ''Camponavia'' to catch fire. 33 people died and 36 were injured. The fire started explosions in the ''Camponavia'', which broke in two and sank in a slick of burning oil. The Japanese ship also snapped in two, leaving only the burning bow and stern visible above the waterline. On January 21, 2003, the barge of CEPSA Spabunker IV, used to supply fuel to ships crossing the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...

, sank during a storm on the way from the dock to seek refuge in the port of Algeciras, just a few miles away. The captain died. In 2007 a particularly serious sulphur incident happened as well as intermittent flaring episodes. The impacts of such upsets on surrounding neighbourhoods had provoked outrage and public protest which led to the Consejería de Medio Ambiente of the

Junta de Andalucía The Regional Government of Andalusia ( es, Junta de Andalucía) is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Regional Government and the Government Council. The 2011 budget was 31. ...

to order an independent audit aimed at investigating such incidents. In September 2011 a large fire could be seen for miles around, with black smoke coming from the refinery. In May 2014 a report by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

showed that the nearby town of

La Línea de la Concepción La Línea de la Concepción (, more often referred to as La Línea) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. The city lies on the sandy isthmus which is part of the eastern flank of the Bay of Gibraltar, an ...

had the worst air quality in Spain. The report concentrated on

PM10 Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The te ...

and

PM2.5 Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...

Pollutants in the air, which could only have come from the refinery. In May 2016 the report by the

had placed La Línea as the third worst place in Spain in terms of air quality. {{cite web , url =https://www.who.int/entity/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/WHO_AAP_database_May2016_v3web.xlsx?ua=1 , title = Ambient (outdoor) air pollution database, by country and city 2016 - Excel format , accessdate = 2016-05-25

References

Oil refineries in Spain Energy in Andalusia Buildings and structures in the Province of Cádiz San Roque, Cádiz