The Irving Oil Refinery is a Canadian

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 ...

located in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

. It is currently the largest oil refinery in Canada, capable of producing more than of refined products per day. Over 80 per cent of the production is exported to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, accounting for 19 per cent of the country's gasoline imports and 75 per cent of Canada's gasoline exports to the US. The refinery is owned and operated by Irving Oil Limited Refining Division, a subsidiary company of

Irving Oil Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company. Considered part of the Irving Group of Companies, it was founded by entrepreneur Kenneth "K.C." Irving and is privately owned by his son, Arthur, and h ...

History

The refinery was built in 1960 as a partnership between

and Standard Oil Co. of California (SOCAL) on a site in

. It was built to allow for expansions, the first of which occurred in 1971 and then again in 1974. In 2000, a larger, $1.5 billion upgrade was completed. Irving Oil bought out SOCAL's share in the early 1980s. The refinery is supplied with crude oil primarily delivered by

supertanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...

s to the company's

Canaport Canaport is a Canadian marine crude oil receiving terminal located on the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at Mispec Point, approximately southeast of the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. Commissioned in 1970, Canaport was the first deep-water ...

deep-water terminal which was commissioned in 1970; prior to 1970, crude oil was delivered to the refinery through a much smaller terminal located on

Courtney Bay Saint John Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of New Brunswick, Canada, and within the seaport city of Saint John, New Brunswick. Harbour description The harbour includes the following geographic areas: * Anthonys Cove ...

immediately north of the

Saint John Shipbuilding Saint John Shipbuilding was a Canadian shipbuilding company located in Saint John, New Brunswick. The shipyard was active from 1923 to 2003. History Numerous shipyards were located on the shores of Courtney Bay in the east end of Saint John Ha ...

property. After Canaport opened, this terminal was converted to exclusively export the refinery's output. In 2011 the refinery built a rail terminal for receiving crude oil; the refinery is served by tracks owned by

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN ...

but which are operated by

New Brunswick Southern Railway The New Brunswick Southern Railway Company Limited is a Canadian short line railway owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company Limited, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglo ...

. In July 2010, Irving Oil cancelled plans for an $8-billion project, known as Eider Rock, which would have seen a second refinery built south of Saint John adjacent to the Canaport property with its partner BP. Irving and BP claimed "the demand for refined fuel had dropped and the capital costs of a new refinery were higher than expected." Construction had been scheduled to start in 2011 and at its peak, the refinery project was predicted to create 5,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs. In February 2011, Fort Reliance Co. Ltd., Irving Oil Ltd.'s parent company, also cancelled its $30-million project to build a new headquarters at Long Wharf on property owned by the

Port of Saint John The Port of Saint John is a port complex that occupies of land along of waterfront of the Saint John Harbour at the mouth of the Saint John River in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.Port of Saint JohnPort Facilities The Port of Sa ...

. In 2015, Irving Oil said it was no longer importing Bakken shale oil, but was taking cheaper crudes from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician

Andrew Scheer Andrew James Scheer (born May 20, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Regina—Qu'Appelle since 2004. Scheer served as the 35th speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015, and was the lead ...

stated in November 2017 that Canada should ban the import of oil from Saudi Arabia due to human rights and environmental concerns. In December 2018 Scheer demanded that the gender-based analysis requirement imposed on Canadian pipeline projects by the Liberal government be instead applied to oil imported from Saudi Arabia. It came to light because of the 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack that virtually all the 115,000

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

per day of imported Saudi oil that is processed in Canada is processed at the Irving oil refinery. Canada accounted for 1.5 per cent of exports from Saudi Arabia in 2018, when the refinery produced from Saudi oil one-third of its total output.

Rail accidents

On 6 July 2013, a train carrying crude oil from the

Bakken Formation The Bakken Formation () is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The formation was initi ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

destined for the Irving Refinery derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, causing an explosion in the town center of Lac-Mégantic and killing 47 people. On 7 January 2014, another train carrying crude from

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

to the Irving Refinery derailed in Plaster Rock. This derailment caused explosions and fireballs and forced 150 people to evacuate their homes but did not cause any injuries.

Proposed pipeline

In July 2013

TC PipeLines TC PipeLines, LP () is a publicly traded master limited partnership. TC Energy owns 25.48% of the outstanding units and controls the general partner. TC PipeLines, LP manages and owns natural gas pipelines in the United States including 46.45% of ...

announced a proposal to build the

Energy East pipeline The Energy East pipeline was a proposed oil pipeline in Canada. It would have delivered diluted bitumen from Western Canada and North Western United States to Eastern Canada, from receipt points in Alberta, Saskatchewan and North Dakota to ref ...

. This followed a February 2013 meeting between

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Premier

David Alward David Nathan Alward (born December 2, 1959) is a Canadian politician, who served as the 32nd premier of New Brunswick, 2010 to 2014. Alward has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick since 1999 and has been the leader of the P ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Premier

Alison Redford Alison Merrilla Redford (born March 7, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. She was the 14th premier of Alberta, having served in this capacity from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Redford was born in Kitimat, British Columbia ...

, whereby New Brunswick announced its support for Alberta's call to export landlocked

oil sands Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...

crude oil bitumen. Getting Alberta crude oil to tidewater, such as the

facility, would provide access to overseas markets using

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

s whereby the oil would presumably command a higher price using the international

Brent Crude Brent Crude may refer to any or all of the components of the Brent Complex, a physically and financially traded oil market based around the North Sea of Northwest Europe; colloquially, Brent Crude usually refers to the price of the ICE (Intercon ...

index than it currently does in the western United States using the

West Texas Intermediate West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is a grade or mix of crude oil; the term is also used to refer to the spot price, the futures price, or assessed price for that oil. In colloquial usage, WTI usually refers to the WTI Crude Oil futures contract tr ...

index. Premier Redford described the Irving Oil refinery as an "anchor ... with the possibility of also exporting some of that crude by tanker." In October 2017, Irving Oil’s joint venture partner, TransCanada, announced it will be terminating the Energy East pipeline project as a result of changing circumstances around the project.

References

External links

J.D. Irving Ltd

Fort Reliance Company Ltd - Bloomberg Businessweek listing

Irving Oil
{{Irving Group of Companies Companies based in Saint John, New Brunswick Buildings and structures in Saint John, New Brunswick Oil refineries in Canada