The Whiting 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, lique ...
located on the southwestern shore of
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
and the
Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal
The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is an artificial waterway on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, in East Chicago, Indiana, which connects the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan. It consists of two branch canals, the 1.25 mile (2 km) L ...
and operated by
BP. The facility is primarily located in
Whiting, Indiana
Whiting is a city located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in Lake County, Indiana, which was founded in 1889. The city is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It is roughly 16 miles from the Chicago Loop and two miles from Chicago's ...
, USA, though portions of the complex span into the neighboring cities of
Hammond and
East Chicago
East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,698 at the 2010 census. The city is home of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwater harbor characterized by industrial and manufacturing act ...
.
The refinery was established in 1889 by
Standard Oil of Indiana. It is the sixth largest refinery in the US and has a capacity of more than of crude oil.
Modernization project
In 2012 BP undertook a $14B modernization project at Whiting to remove older, less efficient equipment and to install state-of-the-art pollution controls to emissions
which will "reduce harmful air pollution that can cause respiratory problems such as asthma and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog and haze, by more than 4,000 tons per year."
The new Gas Oil Hydrotreater and Coker with a reconfigured distillation unit.
The new Pipestill 12 unit which was upgraded with a coker to handle the
heavier Western Canadian Select
Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams and, historically, its cheapest. It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cenov ...
crude oil
was built to increase energy security in the Midwest by replacing lighter crude oil with heavier crudes.
Mechanical problems and shut down
In August 2015 the most important unit of the Whiting refinery, capable of handling 240 thousand barrel per day and known as 12 pipe still, was shut down - reportedly due to holes found in piping, "disrupted markets throughout the region."
The price of oil in Oklahoma fell and the price of gasoline in the USA Midwest increased.
The price of
Western Canadian Select
Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams and, historically, its cheapest. It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cenov ...
, the heavy crude oil from western Canada refined at the Whiting refinery, fell to $20/bbl - its lowest price in nine years, causing the Canadian oil to be redirected into oil storage at the Oklahoma storage hub.
An oil buildup at the Cushing hub is causing a spread between the price of the North American oil (known as the WTI) and the European price (known as Brent). That spread has averaged about $6 for 2015. During 2013 when the 12 Pipe Still unit was upgraded to handle the heavier Canadian crude oil, the WTI-Brent spread increased to over $20. As of August 2015, the Cushing oil hub is at 80% of its 71-million-barrel capacity, rising at the rate of about 1 million barrels a week.
In August 2022, the Whiting refinery was shut down after a fire broke out at the refinery.
Emissions
In 2001 as part of EPA's
Petroleum Refinery Initiative BP consented to reduce emissions at all of its refineries.
According to an internal fact sheet from BP, "
om "2001 through 2008, the Whiting refinery reduced regulated air emissions 72%."
However, BP North America did not fulfill all its obligations under the 2001 settlement agreement and committed new violations of the
Clean Air Act at the Whiting refinery during the construction project, such as flaring devices. As a result, the
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
(EPA) and the
Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
fined BP North America $8M and required the company to install innovative pollution controls similar to those in a 2012 EPA settlement with Ohio-based
Marathon Petroleum Corporation
Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.
Following it ...
in April 2012 which involved reducing
flares and increasing combustion efficiencies.
In 2021 BP settled a
citizen suit brought by environmental groups by agreeing to stricter monitoring of soot
particulate pollution and a $500,000 settlement. The lawsuit alleged that every day since August 2015, emissions from the Whiting Refinery had violated the Clean Air Act and that state and federal regulators, while aware of the violations, failed to take enforcement or regulatory action to prevent them.
See also
*
List of oil refineries
This is a list of oil refineries. '' Oil & Gas Journal'' publishes a worldwide list of refineries annually in a country-by-country tabulation that includes for each refinery: location, crude oil daily processing capacity, and the size of each proc ...
References
{{Reflist, 2
Buildings and structures in Lake County, Indiana
Oil refineries in the United States
BP buildings and structures
Energy infrastructure in Indiana
Whiting, Indiana
1889 establishments in Indiana