As part of a major investment initiative, BP International has announced that it is to replace the ageing automation systems on its three largest US refineries.
The contract covers 18 units at company refineries located at Whiting in Indiana, Texas City in Texas, and Carson in California.
The Whiting refinery is located near Chicago. Operational since 1890, it has more than 400000 barrels a day of processing capacity. It is the fourth largest refinery in the US and produces enough petroleum to fill more than a half a million cars daily.
The Carson refinery, located near Los Angeles, has been operating since 1923 and processes 270000 barrels of oil per day into petroleum, diesel, jet fuel and petroleum coke. The refinery supplies about 25percent of the Los Angeles petroleum market.
Located south of Houston, the Texas City refinery began operation in 1934, and is BP’s largest refinery worldwide, and the third-largest refinery in the US. It has a crude capacity of about 450000 barrels per day and is capable of producing about 10million gallons per day of premium and unleaded regular fuel, 100000 barrels a day of diesel fuel, and 40000 barrels a day of jet fuel. Combined, these facilities refine about onemillion barrels of crude per day, or about sevenpercent of the country’s total refining capacity. The upgrades are part of BP’s ongoing commitment to improving facilities in North America.Under the contract, new DeltaV digital automation and control systems will be installed in 18 different production units at these refineries, resulting in improved efficiency and reliability in the refining process.
Critical units to be upgraded include fluid catalytic cracker units, cokers, ultracrackers and alkylation units.
