Operations
As initially constructed the refinery produced petrol, kerosene and fuel oils. By 1924 it produced a complete range of petroleum products including a wide range of lubricants, oil for special purposes, and paraffin wax.[18] In 1926 experimental thermal cracking units were installed.[19]
The refining capacity of the refinery over its operational life is summarized in the table.[20][21]
From 1947, capacity of the site was trebled, at a cost of £9m, under chairman William Fraser, 1st Baron Strathalmond.[22] Output of the refinery was planned go from 420,000 tons in 1947, to 850,000 tons in 1948, to 3m tons in 1949.[23]
The US Economic Cooperation Administration helped to fund this expansion, as well as the Shell Haven refinery.[24] Output of the refinery was 781,000 tons in 1948, and 1,259,000 tons in 1949.[25]
During 1952, catalytic cracking units were installed, and at Kent. This technology had been invented just before the war.[26]
The Wales Gas Board trialled butane gas in 1952, produced at the site.[27]
The site produced 3,671,000 tons in 1951, and 4,254,000 tons in 1952.[28] By 1955, BP was refining 10m tons in the UK. The UK could refine 29m tons in total; in 1945 this was 2.5m tons. In 1955, UK total demand of refined products was 20m tons. World consumption was 265m tons in 1938, which was 650m tons in 1954.[29] Total BP refining in the UK dropped to 7.6m tons in 1957.[30]
A ferrofiner unit, for lubricants, was developed at Sunbury, which would be built from December 1961,[31] and operating from June 1963.[32]
In 1960, the UK refined 50m tons of oil, in total.[33] £4.5m was constructed for a larger plant from 1962.[34] UK refining was 58m tons in 1963, but demand was 61m tons. UK refining capacity was expected to be 68m tons by the end of 1964, and 88m tons by the end of 1967. 2.5m tons of refining would be added, to take refining capacity to 8m tons by 1967.[35]
From May 1970 BP built a new £16m lubricating oil complex.[36] This raised the production of lubricating oil from 100,000 tonnes a year, to 200,000 tons a year, to be completed by early 1972.[37] It comprised a 30,000 barrel per day vacuum distillation unit, a 9,000 barrel per day propane de-asphalting unit, a 10,000 bpd extraction unit, a 6,240 bpd dewaxing unit, and a 6,000 bpd ferro-finer.
Half the capacity was decommissioned in late 1985, the remainder was closed in January 1986, together with the Angle Bay terminal and pipeline. The refinery was restructured as a specialist refinery until it was closed in 1999.[5]
The refinery was the focus of a significant petrochemical industry in the area: the Baglan Bay complex.[5] Baglan Bay was developed from 1961, to make PVC.[38] £40m was constructed on Baglan Bay in 1968, to start operating from 1971.[39]
Import pipeline
Crude oil was originally imported through the purpose-built Queen’s Dock at Swansea, capable of handling tankers of up to 28,000 D.W.T.[6] To accommodate larger tankers then being developed, a new jetty below Fort Popton and a new terminal was constructed at Angle Bay in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire in 1962. The terminal could handle tankers of up to 100,000 D.W.T. (Dead Weight Tons).[40] Crude oil was pumped from the jetties to five storage tanks built within the Fort and then to the tank farm at Kilpaison (51°40'29"N 5°02'47"W) on the south east edge of Angle Bay and then to Llandarcy through a new pipeline, from November 1960.[41][42] The specification of the Angle Bay to Llandarcy refinery pipeline was as follows.
Location
The site of the refinery, which covered 650 acres, was off the Llandarcy
