Lindsey Oil Refinery

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Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox oil refinery

Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery is an oil refinery in North Killingholme, North Lincolnshire, England owned and operated by the Prax Group. It lies to the north of the Humber Refinery, owned by rival oil company Phillips 66, and the railway line to Immingham Docks. Immingham Power Station, owned by VPI Immingham, provides the electricity and heat for the fractionation processes.

History and operation

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The site was announced in Belgium on 17 February 1965.[1] East Midlands Gas Board had built a £6.5m site in 1965, in conjunction with Total.[2] The Prince of Wales visited this site on Friday 19 June 1968, later visiting nearby gas field sites in the North Sea.[3]

In the early 1970s the CEGB had planned a 4,000MW oil power station nearby, and another oil power station at Insworke in Cornwall. Both would be cancelled in March 1975.[4]

Construction

Construction began in November 1965, by Lummus Company. The refinery would process 65,000 barrels per day, which was 3.5m tons per year. It was planned to open in 1967. Storage tanks were built by William Neill of Merseyside.[5]

On Thursday 10 August 1967, around 4pm, a 49 year old construction worker, for Sir Robert McAlpine, was killed, after falling 15 feet on a scaffold. There were 2,000 construction workers. Qualified first aid staff were not sufficient. The worker died in the ambulance.[6][7]

There was an explosion in a boiler house at 10.20am on Monday 27 November 1967, injured four construction workers.[8][9][10] 21 year old Peter Adams, of 65 Macaulay Street in Grimsby, died in an ambulance when being transferred from Scartho Road Hospital to Sheffield.[11][12][13]

Opening

By the end of 1968, UK refining capacity would be 96m tons, an increase of 18m tons in 1968. The refinery cost £30m. The neighbouring refinery also cost £30m.[14]

It was officially opened on Friday 28 June 1968 by the Labour Minister of Power, Ray Gunter.[15]

It was named after the former Lindsey pre-1974 local government area of Lincolnshire.

The refinery entered service in May 1968 as a joint project between Total and Fina.

Operation

In September 1971 it processed the first North Sea oil from the Norwegian Ekofisk field, from a 30,000 ton tanker.[16]

It currently employs a permanent staff of around 415, as well as several hundred contractors on site, rising to up to several thousand during major turnaround and maintenance projects. In 1999, Total took full control of the plant, when it bought Fina.

Producing around 35 types of product, it currently processes circa 113,000 barrels of oil per day after its refining capacity was almost halved during restructuring initiatives by former operators Total.

Crude oil is imported via two pipelines, connecting the 1,000-metre jetty five miles away at Immingham Dock, to the refinery.

In March 2021, the refinery was bought by Prax Group from Total S.A.[17]

Production units

More units were added, to take refining capacity to 7m tons in the early 1970s, at a cost of £10m.[18] The French and Belgian companies had a half of the total capacity each.[19]

From 1973 a 64-mile pipeline was built, to the north west by Total.[20] The £500,000 oil terminal, in Leeds, had opened in April 1968, with oil transported by rail.[21]

Further units added, from 1976, to open in 1979, costing £58m. 1,500 construction workers worked on the development.[22]

By 1977 it was the sixth-largest refinery in the UK, processing around 10m tonnes. A catalytic cracker was built from 1977, which would process 1m tonnes per year, being one third more efficient at fuel processing than previous technology.[23]

In the 1980s, a fluid catalytic cracker, an alkylation unit, a visbreaker, and an MTBE (Methyl tert-butyl ether) unit (for high octane petrol) were added. In May 1982 a £50m development was begun.[24]

From 1988, the Belgian company built a pipeline to an oil terminal Hertfordshire.[25]

By 1998 the site was processing 200,000 barrels per day, and was the UK's third-largest refinery.[26]

In 2007, a distillate hydrotreater (HDS) was built. A hydrogen production unit (a methane steam reformer for the hydrotreater process) is being built, for completion in 2009. The new plant will provide ultra-low sulfur diesel and mean different types of crude oil can be processed, that can be made in a conventional catalytic cracker or hydrocracker. It was built from June 2008 – June 2009 by Jacobs Engineering.

2009 workers dispute

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". On 28 January 2009, approximately 800 of Lindsey Oil Refinery's local contractors went on strike following the appointment by the Italian construction contractor IREM of several hundred European (mainly Italian and Portuguese) contractors on the site at a time of high unemployment in the local and global economy.

Subsequently, sympathy walkouts at other UK petroleum, power and chemical sites took place. 700 workers were sacked at the plant in June 2009, resulting in further worker walkouts at other UK sites. Negotiations led to the reinstatement of 647 workers at the end of June 2009.

2025 financial difficulties

On 30 June 2025, Prax Group's parent company, State Oil, entered insolvency. This was reported to be largely due to operating losses at the Lindsey refinery. The move put over 400 jobs at the refinery at risk.[27] The government agreed to a financial indemnity for the official receiver to allow the refinery to continue operating while the search for a buyer was carried out.[28]

Accidents and incidents

2004 pollution incident

In December 2004, the failure of an oil pipeline at the Lindsey refinery resulted in 60,000 litres of crude oil leaking into the Humber Estuary.[29][30]

The Environment Agency prosecuted Total, the-then owner of the refinery, regarding the incident and in December 2005, the company pleaded guilty and were fined £12,500 plus £5,651 costs for allowing to leak to take place.[30] The Environment Agency said the incident did not result in any long-term impact on the environment.[30]

2010 accident

On Tuesday 29 June 2010 an explosion and subsequent fire broke out at the plant, killing Robert Greenacre, a 24-year-old worker, and injuring others. It originated beneath an Atmospheric Distillation Column (CDU-2) at a steam out point where maintenance was being carried out.[31][32][33] Total reported that firefighters had found traces of asbestos in the refinery's crude oil distillation unit three days after the initial explosion.[34]

References

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  1. ↑ Times Thursday February 18 1965, page 19
  2. ↑ Times Friday June 18 1965, page 19
  3. ↑ Times Saturday July 20 1968, page 2
  4. ↑ Times Thursday March 20 1975, page 19
  5. ↑ Times Friday November 19 1965, page 17
  6. ↑ Grimsby Evening Telegraph Friday 11 August 1967, page 1
  7. ↑ Times Wednesday August 16 1967, page 3
  8. ↑ Grimsby Evening Telegraph Monday 27 November 1967, page 1
  9. ↑ Grimsby Evening Telegraph Tuesday 28 November 1967, page 1
  10. ↑ Times Tuesday November 28 1967, page 3
  11. ↑ Grimsby Evening Telegraph Wednesday 29 November 1967, page 1
  12. ↑ Times Wednesday November 29 1967, page 2
  13. ↑ Louth Standard Friday 1 December 1967
  14. ↑ Times Friday August 9 1968, page 19
  15. ↑ Times Saturday June 29 1968, page 15
  16. ↑ Times Tuesday October 19 1971
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Times Monday February 2 1970, page 18
  19. ↑ Times Monday May 12 1969, page 30
  20. ↑ Times Monday September 24 1973, page 18
  21. ↑ Times Thursday April 4 1968, page 27
  22. ↑ Times Saturday October 2 1976, page 17
  23. ↑ Times Thursday March 17 1977, page 28
  24. ↑ Times Monday April 26 1982
  25. ↑ Times Friday November 25 1988, page 26
  26. ↑ Times Wednesday December 2 1998, page 25
  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  30. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  33. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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External links

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