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69-628: The company operates seven complex oil refineries with a total crude oil processing capacity of 678,000 barrels per stream day. It has facilities in Cheyenne, Wyoming (52,000 barrels per day), El Dorado, Kansas (coking refinery - 135,000 bbl/d), Artesia, New Mexico (100,000 bbl/d), Tulsa, Oklahoma (125,000 bbl/d), Woods Cross, Utah (45,000 bbl/d), Sinclair, Wyoming and Casper, Wyoming . It operates three lubricants and specialties facilities in Mississauga (15,600 bbl/d), Petrolia, PA and in

138-402: A devolatilization process to separate usable oil from the waste asphaltene material. Certain cracked streams are particularly suitable to produce petrochemicals includes polypropylene, heavier polymers, and block polymers based on the molecular weight and the characteristics of the olefin specie that is cracked from the source feedstock. Oil refineries are large-scale plants, processing about

207-632: A broad range of several applications. Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold without further processing. Smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by processes such as alkylation , or more commonly, dimerization . The octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming , which involves removing hydrogen from hydrocarbons producing compounds with higher octane ratings such as aromatics . Intermediate products such as gasoils can even be reprocessed to break

276-761: A capacity of 940,000 bbl/d (149,000 m /d) but effective run rates have been dramatically lower due to the impact of 20 years of sanctions , and SK Energy 's Ulsan in South Korea with 840,000 bbl/d (134,000 m /d) are the second and third largest, respectively. Prior to World War II in the early 1940s, most petroleum refineries in the United States consisted simply of crude oil distillation units (often referred to as atmospheric crude oil distillation units). Some refineries also had vacuum distillation units as well as thermal cracking units such as visbreakers (viscosity breakers, units to lower

345-488: A compact pile of parts on a wagon and then assembled as a hollow structure at the job site. Wooden pipes were especially popular in mountain regions where transport of heavy iron or concrete pipes would have been difficult. Wooden pipes were easier to maintain than metal, because the wood did not expand or contract with temperature changes as much as metal and so consequently expansion joints and bends were not required. The thickness of wood afforded some insulating properties to

414-800: A few percent sulfur -containing molecules, elemental sulfur is also often produced as a petroleum product. Carbon , in the form of petroleum coke , and hydrogen may also be produced as petroleum products. The hydrogen produced is often used as an intermediate product for other oil refinery processes such as hydrocracking and hydrodesulfurization . Petroleum products are usually grouped into four categories: light distillates (LPG, gasoline, naphtha), middle distillates (kerosene, jet fuel, diesel), heavy distillates, and residuum (heavy fuel oil, lubricating oils, wax, asphalt). These require blending various feedstocks, mixing appropriate additives, providing short-term storage, and preparation for bulk loading to trucks, barges, product ships, and railcars. This classification

483-428: A heavy, long-chained oil into a lighter short-chained one, by various forms of cracking such as fluid catalytic cracking , thermal cracking , and hydrocracking . The final step in gasoline production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures , and other properties to meet product specifications. Another method for reprocessing and upgrading these intermediate products (residual oils) uses

552-430: A hundred thousand to several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the high capacity, many of the units operate continuously , as opposed to processing in batches , at steady state or nearly steady state for months to years. The high capacity also makes process optimization and advanced process control very desirable. Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil ( petroleum ) as it

621-645: A large amount of steam and cooling water need to have an abundant source of water. Oil refineries, therefore, are often located nearby navigable rivers or on a seashore, nearby a port. Such location also gives access to transportation by river or by sea. The advantages of transporting crude oil by pipeline are evident, and oil companies often transport a large volume of fuel to distribution terminals by pipeline. A pipeline may not be practical for products with small output, and railcars, road tankers, and barges are used. Petrochemical plants and solvent manufacturing (fine fractionating) plants need spaces for further processing of

690-658: A large volume of refinery products, or to mix chemical additives with a product at source rather than at blending terminals. The refining process releases a number of different chemicals into the atmosphere (see AP 42 Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors ) and a notable odor normally accompanies the presence of a refinery. Aside from air pollution impacts there are also wastewater concerns, risks of industrial accidents such as fire and explosion, and noise health effects due to industrial noise . Many governments worldwide have mandated restrictions on contaminants that refineries release, and most refineries have installed

759-462: A number of further chemical processes are integrated into it. For example, light hydrocarbons are steam-cracked in an ethylene plant, and the produced ethylene is polymerized to produce polyethene . To ensure both proper separation and environmental protection, a very low sulfur content is necessary in all but the heaviest products. The crude sulfur contaminant is transformed to hydrogen sulfide via catalytic hydrodesulfurization and removed from

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828-403: A pipe is manufactured often forms as the basis for choosing any pipe. Materials that are used for manufacturing pipes include: Early wooden pipes were constructed out of logs that had a large hole bored lengthwise through the center. Later wooden pipes were constructed with staves and hoops similar to wooden barrel construction. Stave pipes have the advantage that they are easily transported as

897-551: A shoreline necklace of refineries, built in the early 20th century before this area was populated, and associated chemical plants are adjacent to urban areas in Richmond , Martinez , Pacheco , Concord , Pittsburg , Vallejo and Benicia , with occasional accidental events that require " shelter in place " orders to the adjacent populations. A number of refineries are located in Sherwood Park, Alberta , directly adjacent to

966-584: Is a piping system with which most people are familiar, as it constitutes the form of fluid transportation that is used to provide potable water and fuels to their homes and businesses. Plumbing pipes also remove waste in the form of sewage , and allow venting of sewage gases to the outdoors. Fire sprinkler systems also use piping, and may transport nonpotable or potable water , or other fire-suppression fluids. Piping also has many other industrial applications, which are crucial for moving raw and semi-processed fluids for refining into more useful products. Some of

1035-544: Is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel , asphalt base , fuel oils , heating oil , kerosene , liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha . Petrochemical feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant . [1] There

1104-433: Is based on the way crude oil is distilled and separated into fractions. Over 6,000 items are made from petroleum waste by-products, including fertilizer , floor coverings , perfume , insecticide , petroleum jelly , soap , vitamin capsules . The image below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical oil refinery that depicts the various unit processes and the flow of intermediate product streams that occurs between

1173-408: Is cooled by exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil. All of the fractions (i.e., the overhead naphtha, the sidecuts, and the bottom residue) are sent to intermediate storage tanks before being processed further. A party searching for a site to construct a refinery or a chemical plant needs to consider the following issues: Factors affecting site selection for oil refinery: Refineries that use

1242-545: Is not exceeded under different loads such as sustained loads, operating loads, pressure testing loads, etc., as stipulated by the ASME B31, EN 13480, GOST 32388, RD 10-249 or any other applicable codes and standards. It is necessary to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the piping under regular loads (internal pressure and thermal stresses) as well under occasional and intermittent loading cases such as earthquake, high wind or special vibration, and water hammer. This evaluation

1311-424: Is processed in oil refineries . The majority of petroleum is converted to petroleum products, which includes several classes of fuels. Oil refineries also produce various intermediate products such as hydrogen , light hydrocarbons, reformate and pyrolysis gasoline . These are not usually transported but instead are blended or processed further on-site. Chemical plants are thus often adjacent to oil refineries or

1380-413: Is removed from the distillation column by a pumparound system as shown in the diagram below. As shown in the flow diagram, the overhead distillate fraction from the distillation column is naphtha. The fractions removed from the side of the distillation column at various points between the column top and bottom are called sidecuts . Each of the sidecuts (i.e., the kerosene, light gas oil, and heavy gas oil)

1449-475: Is then processed further in the other refinery processing units. The CDU is often referred to as the atmospheric distillation unit because it operates at slightly above atmospheric pressure. Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit. The incoming crude oil is preheated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then desalted to remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride). Following

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1518-590: Is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units, such as distillation columns. In many ways, oil refineries use many different technologies and can be thought of as types of chemical plants . Since December 2008,

1587-478: Is usually performed with the assistance of a specialized ( finite element ) pipe stress analysis computer programs such as AutoPIPE, CAEPIPE, CAESAR, PASS/START-PROF, or ROHR2 . In cryogenic pipe supports, most steel become more brittle as the temperature decreases from normal operating conditions, so it is necessary to know the temperature distribution for cryogenic conditions. Steel structures will have areas of high stress that may be caused by sharp corners in

1656-648: The Allies , during the Oil Campaign of World War II . Another close contender for the title of hosting the world's oldest oil refinery is Salzbergen in Lower Saxony , Germany. Salzbergen's refinery was opened in 1860. At one point, the refinery in Ras Tanura , Saudi Arabia owned by Saudi Aramco was claimed to be the largest oil refinery in the world. For most of the 20th century, the largest refinery

1725-619: The Edeleanu process . This increased the refining efficiency compared to pure fractional distillation and allowed a massive development of the refining plants. Successively, the process was implemented in France, Germany, U.S. and in a few decades became worldwide spread. In 1910 Edeleanu founded "Allgemeine Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie" in Germany, which, given the success of the name, changed to Edeleanu GmbH, in 1930. During Nazi's time,

1794-493: The hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation . Since the lighter liquid products are in great demand for use in internal combustion engines, a modern refinery will convert heavy hydrocarbons and lighter gaseous elements into these higher-value products. Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying molecular masses , forms and lengths such as paraffins , aromatics , naphthenes (or cycloalkanes ), alkenes , dienes , and alkynes . While

1863-416: The octane rating of their product gasoline, lower the sulfur content of their diesel fuel and home heating fuels to comply with environmental regulations and comply with environmental air pollution and water pollution requirements. In the 19th century, refineries in the U.S. processed crude oil primarily to recover the kerosene . There was no market for the more volatile fraction, including gasoline, which

1932-422: The petrochemical industry with increased risk of various cancers, such as mesothelioma . It also found reduced risks of other cancers, such as stomach and rectal . The systematic review did mention that several of the associations were not due to factors directly related to the petroleum industry, rather were related to lifestyle factors such as smoking . Evidence for adverse health effects for nearby residents

2001-403: The pressure , flow rate and temperature of the transmitted fluid, and usually are included in the field of piping design (or piping engineering), though the sensors and automatic controlling devices may alternatively be treated as part of instrumentation and control design. Piping systems are documented in piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs). If necessary, pipes can be cleaned by

2070-447: The tube cleaning process. Piping sometimes refers to piping design, the detailed specification of the physical piping layout within a process plant or commercial building. In earlier days, this was sometimes called drafting , technical drawing , engineering drawing , and design, but is today commonly performed by designers that have learned to use automated computer-aided drawing or computer-aided design (CAD) software. Plumbing

2139-408: The vacuum distillation unit may also produce fractions that can be refined into end products such as spindle oil used in the textile industry, light machine oil, motor oil, and various waxes. The crude oil distillation unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in virtually all petroleum refineries. The CDU distills the incoming crude oil into various fractions of different boiling ranges, each of which

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2208-399: The viscosity of the oil). All of the many other refining processes discussed below were developed during the war or within a few years after the war. They became commercially available within 5 to 10 years after the war ended and the worldwide petroleum industry experienced very rapid growth. The driving force for that growth in technology and in the number and size of refineries worldwide was

2277-628: The 12th century. In the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), a workshop called the "Fierce Oil Workshop", was established in the city of Kaifeng to produce refined oil for the Song military as a weapon. The troops would then fill iron cans with refined oil and throw them toward the enemy troops, causing a fire – effectively the world's first " fire bomb ". The workshop was one of the world's earliest oil refining factories where thousands of people worked to produce Chinese oil-powered weaponry. Prior to

2346-860: The 1800s, primarily producing kerosene for oil lamps. In the early twentieth century, the introduction of the internal combustion engine and its use in automobiles created a market for gasoline that was the impetus for fairly rapid growth of the petroleum industry. The early finds of petroleum like those in Ontario and Pennsylvania were soon outstripped by large oil "booms" in Oklahoma , Texas and California . Samuel Kier established America's first oil refinery in Pittsburgh on Seventh Avenue near Grant Street, in 1853. Polish pharmacist and inventor Ignacy Łukasiewicz established an oil refinery in Jasło , then part of

2415-589: The Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Poland ) in 1854. The first large refinery opened at Ploiești , Romania, in 1856–1857. It was in Ploiesti that, 51 years later, in 1908, Lazăr Edeleanu , a Romanian chemist of Jewish origin who got his PhD in 1887 by discovering amphetamine , invented, patented and tested on industrial scale the first modern method of liquid extraction for refining crude oil,

2484-523: The City of Edmonton , which has a population of over 1,000,000 residents. NIOSH criteria for occupational exposure to refined petroleum solvents have been available since 1977. Modern petroleum refining involves a complicated system of interrelated chemical reactions that produce a wide variety of petroleum-based products. Many of these reactions require precise temperature and pressure parameters.   The equipment and monitoring required to ensure

2553-860: The Netherlands. The company also operates asphalt terminals in Arizona , New Mexico , and Oklahoma . The company ranked 279th in the 2021 Fortune 500 , based on its 2020 revenue. The company was incorporated under the name General Appliance Corporation in 1947 and changed its name to Holly Corporation in 1952. In 2003, Frontier Oil agreed to acquire Holly but Holly later cancelled the merger, leading to litigation. In 2009, Holly Corporation acquired 2 refineries in Tulsa, Oklahoma : one from Sinclair Oil Corporation for $ 128 million and one from Sunoco . In July 2011, Holly Corporation and Frontier Oil merged forming HollyFrontier Corporation. In February 2017,

2622-584: The U.S. from 1976 until 2014 when the small Dakota Prairie Refinery in North Dakota began operation. More than half the refineries that existed in 1981 are now closed due to low utilization rates and accelerating mergers. As a result of these closures total US refinery capacity fell between 1981 and 1995, though the operating capacity stayed fairly constant in that time period at around 15,000,000 barrels per day (2,400,000 m /d). Increases in facility size and improvements in efficiencies have offset much of

2691-493: The company acquired Suncor Energy 's Petro-Canada Lubricants unit in Mississauga , Ontario , Canada for C$ 1.125 billion. In early 2019, HollyFrontier acquired Sonneborn, a manufacturer of food grade white mineral oils and waxes in Petrolia, Pennsylvania , for $ 655 million. In June 2020, HollyFrontier announced its Cheyenne refinery will cease processing petroleum, instead shifting production solely to renewable fuel , with

2760-555: The company was bought by the Deutsche Erdöl-AG and Edeleanu, being of Jewish origin, moved back to Romania. After the war, the trademark was used by the successor company EDELEANU Gesellschaft mbH Alzenau (RWE) for many petroleum products, while the company was lately integrated as EDL in the Pörner Group . The Ploiești refineries, after being taken over by Nazi Germany , were bombed in the 1943 Operation Tidal Wave by

2829-555: The construction of new refineries may have also contributed to rising fuel prices in the United States. Additionally, many refineries (more than 100 since the 1980s) have closed due to obsolescence and/or merger activity within the industry itself. Environmental and safety concerns mean that oil refineries are sometimes located some distance away from major urban areas. Nevertheless, there are many instances where refinery operations are close to populated areas and pose health risks. In California's Contra Costa County and Solano County ,

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2898-667: The crude oil and depending on the demands of the market, refineries can produce different shares of petroleum products. The largest share of oil products is used as "energy carriers", i.e. various grades of fuel oil and gasoline . These fuels include or can be blended to give gasoline, jet fuel , diesel fuel , heating oil , and heavier fuel oils. Heavier (less volatile ) fractions can also be used to produce asphalt , tar , paraffin wax , lubricating and other heavy oils. Refineries also produce other chemicals , some of which are used in chemical processes to produce plastics and other useful materials. Since petroleum often contains

2967-487: The desalter, the crude oil is further heated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then heated in a fuel-fired furnace (fired heater) to a temperature of about 398 °C and routed into the bottom of the distillation unit. The cooling and condensing of the distillation tower overhead is provided partially by exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil and partially by either an air-cooled or water-cooled condenser. Additional heat

3036-499: The design, or inclusions in the material. When 3D pipe stress is analyzed, it (3D Pipes) will be considered as 3D beams with supports on both sides. Moreover, the 3D pipe stress determines the bending moments of the pipes. Allowable (ASME) Pipe grades permitted for Oil and gas industries are : Carbon Steel Pipes and tubes (A53 Grade [A & B], A106 Grade [B & C]), Low & Intermediate alloy steel Pipes (A333 Grade [6], A335 Grade [P5, P9, P11, P12, P91]) The material with which

3105-443: The equipment needed to comply with the requirements of the pertinent environmental protection regulatory agencies. In the United States, there is strong pressure to prevent the development of new refineries, and no major refinery has been built in the country since Marathon's Garyville, Louisiana facility in 1976. However, many existing refineries have been expanded during that time. Environmental restrictions and pressure to prevent

3174-412: The growing demand for automotive gasoline and aircraft fuel. In the United States, for various complex economic and political reasons, the construction of new refineries came to a virtual stop in about the 1980s. However, many of the existing refineries in the United States have revamped many of their units and/or constructed add-on units in order to: increase their crude oil processing capacity, increase

3243-514: The highly automated and technically advanced nature of modern petroleum refineries, nearly all processes are contained within engineering controls and represent a substantially decreased risk of exposure to workers compared to earlier times. However, certain situations or work tasks may subvert these safety mechanisms, and expose workers to a number of chemical (see table above) or physical (described below) hazards. Examples of these scenarios include: A 2021 systematic review associated working in

3312-542: The hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules in crude oil are separated in a refinery into components that can be used as fuels , lubricants , and feedstocks in petrochemical processes that manufacture such products as plastics , detergents , solvents , elastomers , and fibers such as nylon and polyesters . Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to provide power for ships , automobiles , aircraft engines , lawn mowers , dirt bikes , and other machines. Different boiling points allow

3381-480: The inlet crude oil feedstock and the final end products. The diagram depicts only one of the literally hundreds of different oil refinery configurations. The diagram also does not include any of the usual refinery facilities providing utilities such as steam, cooling water, and electric power as well as storage tanks for crude oil feedstock and for intermediate products and end products. There are many process configurations other than that depicted above. For example,

3450-621: The late Northern Wei dynasty , the Chinese geographer, writer and politician Li Daoyuan introduced the process of refining oil into various lubricants in his famous work Commentary on the Water Classic . Crude oil was often distilled by Persian chemists , with clear descriptions given in handbooks such as those of Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi ( c.  865–925 ). The streets of Baghdad were paved with tar , derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in

3519-411: The less profitable refineries. Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications, although "light, sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur ) crude oil has been used directly as a burner fuel to produce steam for the propulsion of seagoing vessels. The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and are therefore hazardous, especially in warships . Instead,

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3588-523: The loss of approximately 200 workers. In May 2021, HollyFrontier agreed to purchase the Shell Anacortes Refinery near Anacortes , Washington , with capacity of 149,000 bbl/d, for $ 350 million. In August 2021, HollyFrontier agreed to purchase the assets of Sinclair Oil Corporation , including its two refineries near Casper, Wyoming , and Sinclair, Wyoming , for $ 2.6 billion. The succeeding company, HF Sinclair Corporation, finalized

3657-415: The lost physical capacity of the industry. In 1982 (the earliest data provided), the United States operated 301 refineries with a combined capacity of 17.9 million barrels (2,850,000 m ) of crude oil each calendar day. In 2010, there were 149 operable U.S. refineries with a combined capacity of 17.6 million barrels (2,800,000 m ) per calendar day. By 2014 the number of refinery had reduced to 140 but

3726-538: The merger in December 2023. In March 14, 2022, HollyFrontier and Holly Energy Partners announced the completion of transactions with The Sinclair Companies and the establishment of the new parent company, HF Sinclair Corporation (NYSE:DINO). In July 2022, HF Sinclair announced the layoff of approximately 87 people in the Sinclair, Wyoming refinery. Oil refineries An oil refinery or petroleum refinery

3795-436: The molecules in crude oil include different atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen, the hydrocarbons are the most common form of molecules, which are molecules of varying lengths and complexity made of hydrogen and carbon atoms , and a small number of oxygen atoms. The differences in the structure of these molecules account for their varying physical and chemical properties , and it is this variety that makes crude oil useful in

3864-407: The more exotic materials used in pipe construction are Inconel , titanium , chrome-moly and various other steel alloys . Generally, industrial piping engineering has three major sub-fields: Process piping and power piping are typically checked by pipe stress engineers to verify that the routing, nozzle loads, hangers, and supports are properly placed and selected such that allowable pipe stress

3933-487: The nineteenth century, petroleum was known and utilized in various fashions in Babylon , Egypt , China , Philippines , Rome and Azerbaijan . However, the modern history of the petroleum industry is said to have begun in 1846 when Abraham Gessner of Nova Scotia , Canada devised a process to produce kerosene from coal. Shortly thereafter, in 1854, Ignacy Łukasiewicz began producing kerosene from hand-dug oil wells near

4002-664: The pipes which helped prevent freezing as compared to metal pipes. Wood used for water pipes also does not rot very easily. Electrolysis does not affect wood pipes at all, since wood is a much better electrical insulator. In the Western United States where redwood was used for pipe construction, it was found that redwood had "peculiar properties" that protected it from weathering, acids, insects, and fungus growths. Redwood pipes stayed smooth and clean indefinitely while iron pipe by comparison would rapidly begin to scale and corrode and could eventually plug itself up with

4071-464: The product stream via amine gas treating . Using the Claus process , hydrogen sulfide is afterward transformed to elementary sulfur to be sold to the chemical industry. The rather large heat energy freed by this process is directly used in the other parts of the refinery. Often an electrical power plant is combined into the whole refinery process to take up the excess heat. According to the composition of

4140-455: The proper progression of these processes is complex, and has evolved through the advancement of the scientific field of petroleum engineering . The wide array of high pressure and/or high temperature reactions, along with the necessary chemical additives or extracted contaminants, produces an astonishing number of potential health hazards to the oil refinery worker.  Through the advancement of technical chemical and petroleum engineering,

4209-626: The region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku , Azerbaijan. These fields were described by the Arab geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain , distillation became available in Western Europe by

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4278-609: The time, reports of the health impacts of working in an oil refinery can be found as early as the 1800s. For instance, an explosion in a Chicago refinery killed 20 workers in 1890. Since then, numerous fires, explosions, and other significant events have from time to time drawn the public's attention to the health of oil refinery workers. Such events continue in the 21st century, with explosions reported in refineries in Wisconsin and Germany in 2018. However, there are many less visible hazards that endanger oil refinery workers. Given

4347-458: The total capacity increased to 18.02 million barrels (2,865,000 m ) per calendar day. Indeed, in order to reduce operating costs and depreciation, refining is operated in fewer sites but of bigger capacity. In 2009 through 2010, as revenue streams in the oil business dried up and profitability of oil refineries fell due to lower demand for product and high reserves of supply preceding the economic recession , oil companies began to close or sell

4416-621: The town of Krosno , Poland . Romania was registered as the first country in world oil production statistics, according to the Academy Of World Records . In North America, the first oil well was drilled in 1858 by James Miller Williams in Oil Springs, Ontario , Canada. In the United States, the petroleum industry began in 1859 when Edwin Drake found oil near Titusville , Pennsylvania . The industry grew slowly in

4485-420: The vast majority of these processes are automated and enclosed, thus greatly reducing the potential health impact to workers.   However, depending on the specific process in which a worker is engaged, as well as the particular method employed by the refinery in which he/she works, significant health hazards remain. Although occupational injuries in the United States were not routinely tracked and reported at

4554-601: The world's largest oil refinery has been the Jamnagar Refinery owned by Reliance Industries , located in Gujarat , India, with a processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels (197,000 m ) per day. Oil refineries are an essential part of the petroleum industry's downstream sector. The Chinese were among the first civilizations to refine oil. As early as the first century, the Chinese were refining crude oil for use as an energy source. Between 512 and 518, in

4623-623: Was also weak, with the evidence primarily centering around neighborhoods in developed countries . Piping Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids ( liquids and gases ) from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid. Industrial process piping (and accompanying in-line components) can be manufactured from wood , fiberglass , glass , steel , aluminum , plastic , copper , and concrete . The in-line components, known as fittings , valves , and other devices, typically sense and control

4692-503: Was considered waste and was often dumped directly into the nearest river. The invention of the automobile shifted the demand to gasoline and diesel, which remain the primary refined products today. Today, national and state legislation require refineries to meet stringent air and water cleanliness standards. In fact, oil companies in the U.S. perceive obtaining a permit to build a modern refinery to be so difficult and costly that no new refineries were built (though many have been expanded) in

4761-846: Was the Abadan Refinery in Iran . This refinery suffered extensive damage during the Iran–Iraq War . Since 25 December 2008, the world's largest refinery complex is the Jamnagar Refinery Complex, consisting of two refineries side by side operated by Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar, India with a combined production capacity of 1,240,000 barrels per day (197,000 m /d). PDVSA 's Paraguaná Refinery Complex in Paraguaná Peninsula , Venezuela , with

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