Refineries of Great Britain

No.4 Heysham

Introduction Heysham Refinery, sited on the north west coast of Lancashire by Morecambe Bay, is one of five Shell U.K. refineries in the United Kingdom. It was Shell's first crude oil refinery in the United Kingdom and concentrates on producing gas oils, fuel oils and chemical feedstocks which are sold to the adjacent works of Imperial Chemical Industries Limited f.or the manufacture of ammonia and methanol.

History The building of Heysham Refinery was commenced in 1939 as a result of the Air Ministry's need to meet the R.A.F.'s war time demand for aviation fuel. The site at Heysham was chosen for strategic reasons; enemy bombers would be at the limit of their range, and the shallows of Morecambe Bay would enable tankers to load and discharge in comparitive safety from submarine attack. The refinery came on stream in April, 1941, and from then until the end of the war it was in continuous production and made a substantial contribution to the country's war effort.

After the war the demand in products from Heysham decreased but it continued to manufacture motor fuel instead of aviation fuel. The process was expensive, and by the middle of 1946 oil operations at Heysham ceased. Early in 1948, at the time of severe steel shortage and when Kuwait crude oil became available, the oil plant at Heysham was purchased from the Ministry of Supply by Shell and within four months, by converting existing equipment it was able to provide petrol, gas oils and fuel oils. At the same time Imperial Chemical Industries purchased a chemical plant which had been built in 1942 alongside the refinery and together with Shell set up a joint company, Trimpell Ltd., to provide them with a common service. Heysham was the first crude oil refinery to be brought on stream in this country after the war and processed one and a half million tons in its first year. It played an important part in the country's economy during petrol rationing and now has a crude oil processing capacity of two million tons per annum.

The Refinery Today The refinery, which employs about 100 people, is split geographically ,into four areas - the Main Site, the Heysham Refinery Depot, the Crude Oil Tank Farm and the Jetty and Harbour.

The crude oil processed is mainly of North African, Venezuelan and Middle East origin.

Since in recent years crude oil has increasingly been carried in larger tankers than could be accommodated at the Heysham jetty, it was decided to replace this method of importation in 1967 by a pipe line and the jetty is no longer in use. The pipe line, some 70 miles long, carr-ies crude oil from the Tranmere oil terminal on the River Mersey where very large ocean tankers can be accommodated.

Heysham is a specialised refinery and its products, in comparison with those from the more complex refineries which have since been constructed, are small in number and are as follows :-

Gas - this is produced on the distilling units and part is used as fuel on these units, the remainer being sold to Trimpell and I.C.I. as fuel. L.P.G. Butane - this is produced on the distilling units and mainly distributed to various industrial users. Light Distillate Feedstock (L.D.F.) - this is sold direct to the I.C.I. factory where it is used as a chemical feedstock. Gas and Diesel Oils - these are the fra'ctions that lie between the L.D.F. and fuel oil fractions. They are used as fuel rfor relatively low speed diesel engines and for domestic central heating systems (pressured burner type). Fuel Oils - about half of the refinery production is made up of four grades of fuel oil. The heaviest grade, known as marine fuel oil, is mainly used in large ships and in big factory boilers. The medium grade is also used in ships, and the lightest grade is used for burning on small heating and steam raising units. The fourth grade is low sulphur content quality.

Main Site Crude Distilling Units There are three crude distilling units in all, each capable of processing about 2,000 tons/day each.

They are all operated in a similar manner, taking gas and L.D.F. overhead, with 2 side streams (gas oil and diesel) and fuel oil as bottoms product. The gas oil streams are stripped in separate columns to remove any remaining light constituents but the fuel oil stream is stripped in the lower part of the crude columns.

In the event of an emergency on one or more of the units, the hot oil can be immediately released to a 'blowdown' tank in which the temperature is quickly reduced to a safe level. This is part of a comprehensive range of precautions, in the design as well as the operation of the refinery, aimed at reducing to the minimum any possibiHty of interference with people and amenities in the neighbourhood by pollution of air and water.

Main Site Installation The other facilities on the main site consist principally of the tanks for feeding crude oil to the units, and the tanks and pumps for receiving and transferring the products. There are a number of loading arms for filling road tankers with fuel oil and diesel oil, and products can also be transferred to the Crude Oil Tank Farm, the Finished Products Tank Farm, and the Heysham Refinery Depot respectively. Liquefied petroleum gas is also loaded into road tankers on the main site.