| Whitegate refinery | |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Operator: | Irving Oil |
| Founded: | 1959 |
| Owner: | Irving Oil |
| Capacity Bbl/D: | 75,000 |
| Employees: | 230 |
| Province: | County Cork, Munster |
| City: | Cork |
| Ref Units: | see table in text |
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.
In the late 1950s, the Government of Irelandsought 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]
In 1981, the Irish Refining Company Limited closed the refinery because of poor financial returns.[1] The government recognised that permanent closure would have major economic and strategic consequences, and as a result, ownership was transferred to the Irish state in March 1982 through the Irish National Petroleum Corporation. The refinery was purchased by Tosco in July 2001, a company taken over by Phillips Petroleum in September 2001. Phillips merged with Conoco in September 2002 to form ConocoPhillips. In 2012, Phillips 66 assumed ownership. Irving Oil purchased the refinery in 2016.[3] [4]
Whitegate is a relatively simple refinery with a Nelson complexity index of 3.8.[5] Crude oil arrives at the refinery by tanker at the Marine Terminal. This comprises two berths, Berth 1 for tankers of up to 160,000 tonnes and Berth 2 for coasters of up to 5,000 tonnes. Oil from the tankers is routed to one of seven floating roof crude oil tanks on Corkbeg Island where it is stored until required at the refinery. There are also ballast water facilities[6]
The operation of the refinery process plant is summarised in the following table.[6]
| Pipestill (Crude oil distillation) | 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) | Crude oil | Overheads,
Heavy gas oil | ||
| Naphtha Splitter (two columns) | – | Pipestill overheads | Liquid petroleum gas (LPG), Light naphtha, Heavy naphtha | ||
| LPG Splitter | – | LPG | Propane, Butane | ||
| Powerformer Unit (catalytic reformer) | 1958 1966 | 9,000 bpd 14,500 bpd | Heavy naphtha + hydrogen | Gasoline, Hydrogen rich gas | |
| Isomerisation Unit (UOP catalytic process: converts straight chain pentane and hexane to branched isomers) | 1999 | 6,250 bbd | Light naphtha + hydrogen | High octane blendstock | |
| Hydrofiner Unit (desuphurisation) | 1958 | 6,100 bpd | High sulphur diesel + hydrogen rich gas from reformer | Low sulphur Diesel, Hydrogen sulphide | |
| Hydrofiner Unit (desuphurisation) | 2007 | 26,000 bpd | High sulphur kerosene and gas oil + hydrogen rich gas from reformer | Low sulphur Diesel, hydrogen sulphide | |
| Sulphur recovery Unit | 1996 | Hydrogen sulphide | Elemental sulphur | ||
| Amine Sulphuric Acid Plant | 2011 | 30 tonnes / day | Hydrogen sulphide | Sulphuric Acid | |
| Blending Plant | – | Gasoline, High octane blendstock, LPG, Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), Ethanol | Grade Gasoline |
A number of utilities support the refinery operations:[6]
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]
The products from the refinery are:
The production of each of the products in 2010 was:[8]
| Product | Production, barrels | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LPG | 390,000 | 2.0 | |
| Naphtha | 900,000 | 4.6 | |
| Gasoline | 3,700,000 | 19.0 | |
| Distillate fuel oil | 7,700,000 | 39.5 | |
| Residual fuel oil | 6,000,000 | 30.8 | |
| Refinery fuel | 810,000 | 4.1 | |
| Total | 19,500,000 | 100 |
The total production (in 1,000 barrels) from the refinery over the period 1994 to 2010 was:[8]
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]
Adjacent to the refinery to the south (Coordinates: 51°49’07”N 08°15’17”W) is the Whitegate power station, Glanagow, County Cork. This 435 MW gas turbine station is owned by Bord Gáis part of Centrica. It is designed to run on natural gas or distillate oil, the latter from the refinery, and operates as a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT).[10]