Lindsey Oil Refinery 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, liquefie ...

North Killingholme North Killingholme is a small village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. Situated on the southern bank of the Humber Estuary north-west of Grimsby, Killingholme is divided into two administrative districts, to its south being the ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barto ...

, England owned and operated by the Prax Group. It lies to the north of the

Humber Refinery 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 ...

, owned by rival oil company

Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, helped ground the newly reconfigured Phillips 66. T ...

, and the railway line to Immingham Docks. Immingham Power Station, owned by VPI Immingham, provides the electricity and heat for the

fractionation Fractionation is a separation process in which a certain quantity of a mixture (of gases, solids, liquids, enzymes, or isotopes, or a suspension) is divided during a phase transition, into a number of smaller quantities (fractions) in which the ...

processes.

History and operation

The refinery entered service in May 1968 as a joint project between Total and

Fina FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

and currently employs a permanent staff of around 415, as well as several hundred contractors on site, rising to up to several thousand during major turnaround and maintenance projects. It is named after the former

Lindsey Lindsey may refer to : Places Canada * Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia England * Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 ** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, a ...

pre-1974 local government area of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. In 1999, Total took full control of the plant, when it bought Fina. Producing around 35 types of product, it currently processes circa 113,000 barrels of oil per day after its refining capacity was almost halved during restructuring initiatives by former operators Total. Crude oil is imported via two pipelines, connecting the 1,000-metre jetty five miles away at

Immingham Dock The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest p ...

, to the refinery. In March 2021, the refinery was bought by Prax Group from

Total S.A. TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...

Production units

In the 1980s, a

fluid catalytic cracker In physics, a fluid is a liquid, gas, or other material that continuously deforms (''flows'') under an applied shear stress, or external force. They have zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, are substances which cannot resist any shear f ...

, an

alkylation Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting al ...

unit, a

visbreaker A visbreaker is a processing unit in an oil refinery whose purpose is to reduce the quantity of residual oil produced in the distillation of crude oil and to increase the yield of more valuable middle distillates (heating oil and diesel) by the ...

, and an MTBE (

Methyl tert-butyl ether Methyl ''tertiary''-butyl ether (MTBE), also known as methyl tert-butyl ether and ''tert''-butyl methyl ether, is an organic compound with a structural formula (CH3)3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is sparingly sol ...

) unit (for high octane petrol) were added. In 2007, a distillate hydrotreater (HDS) was built. A hydrogen production unit (a methane steam reformer for the hydrotreater process) is being built, for completion in 2009. The new plant will provide

ultra-low sulfur diesel Ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) is diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur content. Since 2006, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America has been of a ULSD type. The move to lower sulfur content al ...

and mean different types of crude oil can be processed, that can be made in a conventional catalytic cracker or hydrocracker. It was built from June 2008 – June 2009 by

Jacobs Engineering Jacobs Solutions Inc. is an American international technical professional services firm. The company provides engineering, technical, professional and construction services, as well as scientific and specialty consulting for a broad range of cli ...

2009 workers dispute

On 28 January 2009, approximately 800 of Lindsey Oil Refinery's local contractors went on strike following the appointment by the Italian construction contractor

IREM is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwa ...

of several hundred European (mainly Italian and Portuguese) contractors on the site at a time of high unemployment in the local and global economy. Subsequently, sympathy walkouts at other UK petroleum, power and chemical sites took place. 700 workers were sacked at the plant in June 2009, resulting in further worker walkouts at other UK sites. Negotiations led to the reinstatement of 647 workers at the end of June 2009.

2010 accident

On Tuesday 29 June 2010 an explosion and subsequent fire broke out at the plant, killing Robert Greenacre, a 24-year-old worker, and injuring others. It originated beneath an Atmospheric Distillation Column (CDU-2) at a steam out point where maintenance was being carried out. Total reported that firefighters had found traces of

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere ...

in the refinery's crude oil distillation unit three days after the initial explosion.

Local impact

The refinery's presence causes a considerable amount of traffic to pass through the village of

at the time of work hours commencing and ending. This has caused some disputes with the refinery's neighbouring community. In December 2004, Total were fined £12,500 for allowing 60,000 litres of crude oil to leak into the

Humber Estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

References

*https://www.business-live.co.uk/manufacturing/lindsey-oil-refinery-deal-completes-19937054 on 1 March 2021 *https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/030121-prax-group-completes-acquisition-of-uks-lindsey-refinery on 1 March 2021 *https://www.rigzone.com/news/prax_group_completes_total_uk_refinery_buy-08-mar-2021-164822-article/ on 8 March 2021

External links

* * {{Oil storage and distribution in the United Kingdom Oil refineries in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Lincolnshire Energy infrastructure completed in 1968 Borough of North Lincolnshire TotalEnergies 2010 fires in the United Kingdom Fires in England June 2010 events in the United Kingdom