Refining

Welcome to the world of oil refining. A refinery is a complex factory. Like a paper mill that makes paper out of pulp our refineries take crude oil and turn it into gasoline, bio-diesel, diesel, jet fuel and many other products. How does the refining process work?

The refining process is basically as follows: crude oil is first distilled in a crude distillation unit (CDU). The CDU produces a number of basic products: LPG, naphtha, kerosene, gas oil and fuel oil. These basic products are then further processed in upgrading units. The Petroplus refinery at Cressier for instance has a reformer unit and an isomerization unit for turning naphtha into gasoline, a desulphurisation unit to process gas oil into (low-sulphur) diesel and a thermal cracking unit that produces additional gasoline and gas oil from fuel oil.

A refinery performs three basic steps: separation, conversion, and treatment. A typical refinery costs anywhere between half a billion to multiple billions of Euros. Each of our four refineries runs twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. They all require a large number of dedicated employees to run.

As a rule of thumb, the more upgrading units, the more complex the refinery. Complex refineries usually have a higher replacement value but they also yield a higher margin. The Petroplus refinery in Teesside is a relatively simple refinery. The complexity of the refineries, Coryton, Ingolstadt, Cressier and BRC, is greater because they possess additional units which provide for more upgrading capacity.

Please take a closer look at our refineries and our processing facility.

Coryton, UK
Petit Couronne, FR
Ingolstadt, D
Reichstett, FR
Cressier, CH
Teesside, UK
BRC Refinery, BE
APF Antwerp Processing Facility, BE