The Chevron Richmond Refinery is a petroleum refinery in Richmond, California, on San Francisco Bay. It is owned and operated by Chevron Corporation and employs more than 1,200 workers, making it the city's largest employer. The refinery processes approximately of crude oil a day in the manufacture of petroleum products and other chemicals. The refinery's primary products are motor gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel and lubricants.What We Do: The Refining Process , Chevron website, access date 05-16-2009
History
Beginnings The refinery was established several years before the City of Richmond was incorporated in 1905. Construction on the refinery began in 1901 between the Potrero Hills and the marshlands in the Point Richmond District; the refinery was opened in 1902.The Early Years 1902 - 1914 , Chevron website, access date 02-19-2009 The refinery was built by Standard Oil and its first headquarters was in an abandoned farm house at the former site of the Peters and Silva Farms.Chevron Beginnings: W.S. Rheem, by Nilda Rego, Contra Costa Times, 01-18-2009, access date 02-19-2009 The complex was described as "colossal" at the time and to this day it remains a very large complex of its kind. In its first year of operation the plant could process of oil per day and had a tankage capacity of in that same first year. William Rheem played a key role in the facility's construction and implementation, being the project manager and the installation's first superintendent. Rheem continued on to be a key and historic civic figure in the City of Richmond. The presence of the burgeoning refinery transformed the small town of Richmond from a rural agricultural community with 200 residents to a company town of several thousand within a few years.
Crude oil is delivered by, and refined products distributed by, oil tankers using a long wharf extending into San Francisco Bay. Pipe lines connect the wharf to the refinery; and a parallel narrow gauge electric railway was built to transport packaged goods, shipboard supplies and personnel. The refinery shops built six power cars and three unpowered trailers for use under of overhead line. Trolley operation began in 1905 serving a shipside hotel, ship chandlery, shook factory, barrel works, and some refinery administration offices. The trolley line was replaced by trucks and buses in 1948.
Growth The number of passenger cars in the United States rose from 1.6 million to 5.6 million from 1914 to 1918. Motor trucks, farm tractors, and aircraft all increased at a comparable rate. As a result, the demand for gasoline, lubricants and other petroleum products intensified.Growth Through Research and Innovation 1915 - 1945 , Chevron website, access date 05-16-2009 The Richmond refinery was in an excellent position with its plentiful crude oil, state-of-art equipment and prime location to capitalize on the increased demand for petroleum products on the West Coast. By 1915, the refinery spread across , employed 1,700 workers, and had a capacity of a day. Not only did the refinery produce transportation fuels, it also had a grease plant, an asphaltum plant, a can factory, a barrel works, a machine shop and a tank car repair shop.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Richmond refinery became a critical producer of fuel for trucks, tankers, trains, and planes in the war effort. Historian Gerald White reported that the "high quality of the medicinal white oil developed at Richmond to take the place of Russian white oil, cut off by the war, caused an executive of E.R. Squibb & Sons to comment that the Richmond product was 'superior to the best oil' ever imported."
At the end of the war the company shifted its focus back to basic product research and in 1919 constructed a well-equipped red brick laboratory building that still stands today. Development manager Ralph A. Halloran's emphasis on centralized, systematic research helped the department gain greater prestige in support of the company's tenet, "Research First - Then Advertising," which ensured that a product was thoroughly tested before being introduced to the public. By 1924, the laboratory's staff grew to 75 skilled employees, who engaged in tests and experiments, not only to develop new uses for petroleum, but to improve existing processes. In 1938 the refinery constructed a new Hydro Plant for the production of synthetic aviation gasoline. It was the first in the Western United States to produce synthetic gasoline by combining purified hydrogen gas with an unsaturated gas by-product from gasoline cracking operations.
With the onset of World War II the refinery saw major changes. Many employees left for service in the U.S. military and close to 400 women joined the refinery workforce. The refinery shifted production to high-octane fuel and other products to meet military needs. In 1943 a toluene plant was constructed to supply the key ingredient for TNT and later, at the request of the U.S. military, was converted to production of 100-octane gasoline. The U.S. Secretaries of War and Navy and the Petroleum Administrator commended the refinery for exceeding the production of aviation gasoline requested by the government. In 1945, the Richmond refinery won its fifth U.S. Army-Navy "E" award for its support of the military effort.
Modernization
Following the end of World War II, the refinery began a long-range modernization and expansion of its facilities to accommodate the new post-war consumer demands for petroleum products. The refinery constructed units that increased production of highly refined products for the postwar generation of higher-compression engines. In 1951, a residuum stripper was constructed to convert heavy residual fuel oil into lighter products. In 1959, the company made a major breakthrough when it developed the Isocracking process which uses catalysts to rearrange the existing molecules of heavy fuel oils to remove sulfur and convert low-value fuel oils into higher-yield products such as gasoline.
The company also completed a new fluid catalytic cracking unit capable of processing daily of feed stock, further adding to the high-octane gasolines being demanded in rapidly increasing quantities by modern, high-compression automobile engines. In 1965, a breakthrough came when the Richmond refinery opened the world's largest Isomax hydrocracking complex. The unit converts heavy petroleum oils to lighter stocks for gasoline and other higher valued products. The -a-day unit increased the plant's gasoline output by 40%. A solvent de-asphalting plant and a hydrogen manufacturing plant were also constructed to support the Isomax and were the largest of their kind ever constructed.Fueling the Peace and Protecting the Environment 1946 - 1970 , Chevron website, access date 02-19-2009
The post-war years were also marked by a dramatic increase in demand for petrochemicals to serve as the building blocks for hundreds of consumer products. In 1951, a new unit was constructed to manufacture paraxylene, a basic material used for making synthetic fibers, and was the first of its kind to produce the chemical from petroleum. The West Coast's first phenol plant was completed in 1954 for the production of lubricating oil and lubricating oil additive, resins and plastic, and plywood adhesives.
A year later, another chemical plant for the manufacture of isophthalic was constructed, the first in the US. Isophthalic is a chemical intermediate used in plastics and surface coatings. In 1960, construction began on a $17 million complex for production of para- and orthoxylenes, important chemical intermediates, at the Richmond refinery. Another major project increased the capacity for production of alpha olefins, used extensively in the manufacture of "soft" detergents, lubricant additives, plastics and plasticizers. None of these chemical plants are still in operation today except for the alpha olefin plant, which produces an intermediate chemical for the production of Techron, Chevron's gasoline additive.
Recent history
During the 1970s and 1980s as the dynamics of the United States petroleum industry were changing, the refinery was transformed to produce higher-value, higher-volume fuels and lubricating oils and to comply with increasingly stringent state and federal policies. These policies called for the refinery to reduce air emissions and waste, treat water, and prevent oil spills.
In order to comply with federal mandates for reduced-lead gasoline the refinery installed reforming units in 1971 to produce higher octane gasoline material. In 1975, the refinery added a desulfurization unit for the production of low-sulfur fuel oil, primarily to supply the growing needs of California electric utility companies. The expansion was also designed to process greater quantities of high-sulfur crudes and products that met environmental specifications. During the expansion the refinery also built two storage tanks, the largest in the United States, to receive marine cargos.Building a World-class Organization 1971 - Present , Chevron website, access date 05-16-2009
In 1979, a worldwide shortage of crude oil, along with a shift in the availability of quality crudes, presented challenges to manufacturing operations. Chevron invested in the Richmond refinery, improving their flexibility for handling different types of crude oil, responding to changing product standards, installing energy conservation equipment, and complying with environmental or regulatory requirements. A $17 million direct digital computer control system was first installed in the Isomax plant, and later expanded to include all plants. This enabled the refinery to produce higher-grade products and reduce energy consumption.
In 1984, the construction of a major lubricating oil manufacturing plant increased Richmond's lube oil base-stock output from 3,800 to a day, using hydrocracking and hydrorefining processes developed by Chevron Research. Later, in 1993, a major research breakthrough occurred when Chevron introduced Isodewaxing technology. This new technique maximized the production of high quality base oils while co-producing high-value light products and allowed for the economical production of base oils that meet specifications calling for lighter-viscosity lubricant grades.
During the 1990s the refinery began producing Chevron Plus Unleaded gasoline, which replaced regular leaded gasoline in California in 1992. Methyl tert-butyl ether, or MTBE, was added as an oxygenate and to raise the octane number. MTBE was found to contaminate groundwater, and in 2004 was replaced with ethanol.
In 2001 former vice mayor and councilman John Márquez stated that he did not think that the refinery's numerous toxic spills were intentional.Richmond Debates Building Its Own Power Plant at the Chevron Refinery, Jennifer Barrios, 25-05-2001, access date 21-04-2012 He also stated that he thought the refinery was safe. He received campaign funding from BAPAC, that was backed by a $1,500 donation from Chevron Corporation. Marquez also opposed measure T and the 16,000,000 dollars that it would bring the city from large industries like Chevron.
In 2002, the 100th anniversary of the Richmond refinery, the plant had over 1,300 employees, covered 2,900 acres, operated 30 plants, and had the ability to move per day of raw materials and finished products across its long wharf. By 2006, the refinery had a capacity of a day and processed more crude oil than any other plant in the Bay Area and ranked among the major refineries in the U.S.
In March 2014, the company launched a website to provide Richmond-area community news.
Present day refinery
Incidents 1989 explosion and fire