The Teesside Refinery was an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt, asphalt ...

and chemical plant situated just south of Seaton Carew on the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has bee ...

in County Durham. In 2000, it was bought by

Petroplus Petroplus Holdings AG was Europe's largest independent oil refiner by capacity. When the now defunct company was first formed in 1993, it was known as Petroplus International N.V., and was based in the Netherlands. In August 1998, it was liste ...

from ICI and Phillips Petroleum Company. Refining was suspended in 2009, although the site continues to operate as a terminal and storage facility.

History

In the period 1965-1968, three oil refineries were developed close to Teesport on the River Tees, thanks to the Phillips Petroleum's development of the

Ekofisk oil field Ekofisk is an oil field in block 2/4 of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea about southwest of Stavanger. Discovered in 1969 by Phillips Petroleum Company, it remains one of the most important oil fields in the North Sea. This was the first ...

in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. The first two were jointly developed and operated by Phillips and ICI on the north shore of the River Tees, just south of Greatham Creek. After processing this facility fed cyclohexane,

benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen ato ...

, toluene and xylene to ICI's chemical plants at Billingham and Wilton. The third refinery was developed in 1968 by Shell Oil on the south shore within Teesport. In 1980, with the discovery of North Sea gas, a pipeline was installed between Ekofisk and

Seal Sands Seal Sands () is a 294.37 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England, notified in 1966. Situated in the mouth of the River Tees next to Greatham Creek and Seaton-on-Tees Channel, the site is accessible ...

on the north shore. Although the Shell refinery was mothballed in 1989 and later closed, as a result of the pipeline petrochemicals traffic still today represents about 50% of the cargo through Teesport, around 26 million tonnes a year.

Operations

Today the Teesside Refinery is a crude oil reception, storage and trans-shipment installation. Operations consist of both processing and tanker loading facilities and cover a site. Stabilised oil is stored in a tank farm at

Greatham Greatham may refer to: *Greatham, County Durham *Greatham, Hampshire Greatham ( ) is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Liss, just off the A3 road. The nearest railway station is ...

. A corridor containing pipelines, communications and utility services links the two sites, operated jointly by 270 employees. In its 35 years of operations, the terminal has processed over five billion

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

of oil, seen 15,000 ships visit their jetties and had a first-class safety record. The plant has also been run with a downtime of less than 24 hours in 30 years. On site there is a canteen, an active sports and social club and People SPIRIT team who organise a variety of activities. When owned by ConocoPhillips they continually funded technical

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

schemes in the area, and were directly involved in local primary and secondary school

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...

. Initiatives ranged from donating computers and funding school exchange programmes, to providing engineers for maths and science days.

Accreditation

The Teesside terminal is certified to ISO 14001, the international environmental management system standard, which it has held continuously since October 1998. The site is on the fringe of the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s of

, an area of considerable conservation interest and home to wildfowl and seal colonies.

Awards

The terminal has received numerous Gold Medals and President’s awards from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) over the years. These awards are in recognition of the site’s occupational safety achievements acknowledging successful management of occupational health and accident prevention.

Refining suspended

On 9 November 2009, The Engineer reported that refining was to be suspended at the Teesside refinery. Petroplus CEO Jean-Paul Vettier was quoted as saying: "Given the current unfavorable market environment and capital expenditures required to maintain refinery operations at Teesside, we have decided to suspend refinery operations. The site will continue to operate as a terminal and storage facility." On 24 January 2012 it was announced that

would file for

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company (debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet in ...

, which led to the closure of

Coryton Refinery Coryton Refinery was an oil refinery in Essex, England, on the estuary of the River Thames from central London, between Shell Haven Creek and Hole Haven Creek, which separates Canvey Island from the mainland. It was a part of the Port of Lond ...

. Teesside closed shortly afterwards and was bought by Greenergy in July 2012, reopening as a diesel, gasoil and kerosene supply depot in November 2012.Greenergy purchases terminal assets at Teesside

References