Whitegate refinery

The Whitegate refinery, near Whitegate, County Cork, is Ireland's only oil refinery. It has a capacity of 75,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), sufficient to provide 40 percent of Ireland's fuel requirements. It was commissioned in 1959 and was redeveloped several times and produces a range of petroleum products.

History

In the late 1950s, the Government of Ireland sought to develop industry in the country.[1] A consortium of oil companies formed the Irish Refining Company Limited to construct and operate a refinery; the participant companies and their interests were Esso (40%), Shell-Mex & BP (40%) and Caltex (20%). The refinery was constructed on a 330-acre (133 ha) site at Whitegate, East Cork, County Cork. It was built over the period 1957 to 1959 at a cost of about £12.5 million. The refinery was commissioned in April 1959 with Esso as the operator.[1] In 1965 the refinery was expanded to increase the capacity from 1.9 million tons per year to 2.5 million tons per year, at a cost of £3 million.[2]

Production

Crude oil supply

The supply of crude oil as the refinery's main feedstock from 1990 to 2019 is shown on the graph. Figures are in thousand tonnes of oil equivalent.[7] { "version": 2, "width": 800, "height": 300, "data": [ { "name": "table", "values": [ { "x": 1990, "y": 1845 }, { "x": 1991, "y": 1828 }, { "x": 1992, "y": 2023 }, { "x": 1993, "y": 1906 }, { "x": 1994, "y": 2339 }, { "x": 1995, "y": 2279 }, { "x": 1996, "y": 2171 }, { "x": 1997, "y": 2960 }, { "x": 1998, "y": 3085 }, { "x": 1999, "y": 2858 }, { "x": 2000, "y": 3352 }, { "x": 2001, "y": 3437 }, { "x": 2002, "y": 3252 }, { "x": 2003, "y": 3287 }, { "x": 2004, "y": 2992 }, { "x": 2005, "y": 3381 }, { "x": 2006, "y": 3204 }, { "x": 2007, "y": 3466 }, { "x": 2008, "y": 3230 }, { "x": 2009, "y": 2860 }, { "x": 2010, "y": 2971 }, { "x": 2011, "y": 3016 }, { "x": 2012, "y": 3137 }, { "x": 2013, "y": 2900 }, { "x": 2014, "y": 2811 }, { "x": 2015, "y": 3415 }, { "x": 2016, "y": 3272 }, { "x": 2017, "y": 3252 }, { "x": 2018, "y": 3092 }, { "x": 2019, "y": 2588 } ] } ], "scales": [ { "name": "x", "type": "ordinal", "range": "width", "zero": false, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "x" } }, { "name": "y", "type": "linear", "range": "height", "nice": true, "domain": { "data": "table", "field": "y" } } ], "axes": [ { "type": "x", "scale": "x" }, { "type": "y", "scale": "y" } ], "marks": [ { "type": "rect", "from": { "data": "table" }, "properties": { "enter": { "x": { "scale": "x", "field": "x" }, "y": { "scale": "y", "field": "y" }, "y2": { "scale": "y", "value": 0 }, "fill": { "value": "steelblue" }, "width": { "scale": "x", "band": "true", "offset": -1 } } } } ] }

Products

The products from the refinery are:[6]

The production of each of the products in 2010 was:[8]

The total production (in 1,000 barrels) from the refinery over the period 1994 to 2010 was:[8] { "version": 2, "width": 500, "height": 300, "data": [ { "name": "table", "values": [ { "x": 1994, "y": 14580 }, { "x": 1995, "y": 14600 }, { "x": 1996, "y": 14100 }, { "x": 1997, "y": 14100 }, { "x": 1998, "y": 14100 }, { "x": 2003, "y": 21742 }, { "x": 2004, "y": 17559 }, { "x": 2005, "y": 21700 }, { "x": 2006, "y": 23200 }, { "x": 2007, "y": 24100 }, { "x": 2008, "y": 23200 }, { "x": 2009, "y": 19500 }, { "x": 2010, "y": 19500 }, { "x": 1999, "y": 19806 }, { "x": 2000, "y": 22116 }, { "x": 2001, "y": 21000 }, { "x": 2002, "y": 21000

Export

The majority of products are exported by sea via the Marine Terminal. LPG is transferred to the adjacent Calor gas bottling plant by pipeline. The road loading facility has five bottom loading bays for exporting gasoline, gas oil and kerosene to local consumers.[6]

The refinery was run at a loss of $22.5 million in 2020, as a result of reduced demand because of Covid. This compares to a profit of $84.7 million in 2019.[9]

country	Ireland
operator	Irving Oil
founded	1959
owner	Irving Oil
capacity bbl/d	75,000
employees	230
province	County Cork, Munster
coordinates	51.81889°N, -8.2475°W
city	Cork
ref units	see table in text

History

Plant and processes

Utilities

Production

Crude oil supply

Products

Export

Blockade

Plant Review and Potential Sale

Whitegate power station

See also

References