Clyde Refinery

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Clyde Refinery
HDS unit
, hydrotreater, benzene reduction unit, utilities, recovery plant

The Clyde Refinery was a crude oil refinery located in

Royal Dutch Shell
.

History

The Clyde Refinery was built by

Sydney CBD.[4]

In 1948 Shell opened the first major bitumen refinery in Australia at Clyde, with a production capacity of 35,000 tons p/a of bitumen and 10,000 tons p/a of finished lubricants. The plant had originally been planned in 1938 but construction was delayed due to World War 2.[5]

The refinery was expanded significantly between 1959 and 1968, as part of Australia's post war industrial growth. This included the construction of a

Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) in 1967.[2] By the end of 1968 the refinery's workforce had grown to over 1,000 employees, including 120 maintenance workers.[1] Shell deliberately hired a large number of ex-naval personnel to work at the refinery in this period, leading to the site being jokingly referred to as 'HMAS Clyde'.[2]

The expansion of the refinery continued into the 1970s, albeit at a slower rate, with the commissioning of an additional Platformer Unit in 1971 and a second Sulphur Recovery Unit in 1978.[2] The refinery was also the site of the first polypropylene (PP) plant in Australia, which was commissioned by Shell in 1970–1971 and had a capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year.[6]

During the 1980s the refinery went through a period of major rationalisation, with a large number of refinery units closed or merged. Between 1983 and 1984 the refinery's chemical plants were closed, including the Chemical Solvents plant, Hydrocarbon Solvents plant, Epikote plant and Ethylene plant, resulting in redundancies for approximately 120 plant operators, as well as the warehouse storemen who had been responsible for packaging and distributing the refinery's chemical products.[2]

During the 2000s increased government regulation of fuel quality and environmental standards necessitated a number of upgrades to the refinery's existing plant. The refinery's hydrodesulphurisation (HDS) unit was upgraded in 2001 and again in 2008 to reduce the sulphur content of diesel, while in 2004 a new Benzene Reduction Unit (BRU) was built to lower benzene levels in gasoline. In 2008 a major upgrade of the refinery's catalytic cracking unit was also carried out.[7]

In April 2011 Shell announced it intended to shut down refining operations at Clyde and convert the Clyde Refinery and Gore Bay Terminal into a fuel import facility, pending board and employee consultation.[8] The decision was confirmed on 27 July 2011, with all refining activity on the site to cease by mid-2013. This was later brought forward 9 months and the refinery closed in 2012, before then being converted into an import terminal.[9][10]

NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union (NSWFBEU) and the Association of Draughting, Supervisory and Technical Employees (ADSTE).[2]

Technical features

At the time of its closure the refinery employed around 570 workers (including contractors) and had a processing capacity of 85 thousand barrels per day (13.5×10^3 m3/d) or around 4 million tonnes of

crude oil annually.[4] Although relatively small in terms of refining capacity by modern standards, Clyde was a highly flexible plant capable of refining a broader range of crude types than most other Australian refineries (predominantly designed to accommodate light, sweet Australian crudes) and was capable of changing its crude feedstock slate up to three times a day to meet changing demand.[7]

The refinery's product slate was composed of approximately 45%

Port Botany and by a dedicated jet fuel pipeline to Sydney Airport.[7]

Crude oil was supplied to the refinery from the nearby

crude oil tankers per year.[7]

At the time of its closure in late 2013[13] the polypropylene plant was owned by LyondellBasell and had an annual production capacity of 170,000 tonnes.[14]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 27516153
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f Westcott, Mark (1997). Refining crude or crude refinements?: workplace industrial relations at Shell Clyde refinery, 1974-1994 (PhD). University of Sydney. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  3. ^ "COMMONWEALTH OIL CO". Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative. 16 November 1925. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "Shell Clyde Refinery & Gore Bay Terminal". Shell. 5 September 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  5. ^ "NEW SHELL BITUMEN REFINERY AT CLYDE". Building and Engineering. Sydney: Master Builders' Federation of Australia & Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia (N.S.W.). 24 May 1948. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Global PP plant capacity". Grem-Chem. 9 October 2008. Archived from the original on 23 February 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  7. ^
    CFMEU Mining & Energy Division and the AMWU
    . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  8. ^ "Shell says the refinery 'can't compete'". Sydney Morning Herald. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  9. ^ "Shell to cease refining at Clyde". Shell Australia. 27 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  10. ^ Clyde Russell (5 April 2013). "Time for Australia to decide if it wants oil refining". CNBC.[dead link]
  11. ^ Decision of the ACTU Executive Meeting (Report). Australian Council of Trade Unions. May 1992. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  12. ^ "Shell to Start Clyde Refinery in 'Next Few Months'". Bloomberg. 17 March 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  13. ^ "LyondellBasell Industries N.V. Financial Report for the year ending 31 December 2014" (PDF). LyondellBasell Industries N.V. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  14. ^ "Clyde Polypropylene Plant" (PDF). LyondellBasell. 17 August 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2010.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clyde_Refinery&oldid=1189865606"