Bayway Refinery

Bayway Refinery is a refining facility located in Linden, New Jersey and Elizabeth, New Jersey, owned by ConocoPhillips. This is the northernmost refinery on the East Coast of the United States. The oil refinery converts crude oil (supplied by tanker) into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and heating oil. As of 2006, the facility processes approximately 238,000 barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil, producing 145,000 BPD of gasoline and 110,000 BPD of distillates. Its products are delivered to East Coast customers via pipeline transport, barges, railcars and tank trucks.^[1]

The facility also houses a petrochemical plant which produces lubricants and additives, a polypropylene plant which produces 775 million pounds per year^[1], and has its own railway container terminal and heliport.

The workers at the plant have been unionized under the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Local #877) since 1960.

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History

Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller purchased several hundred acres of land between Linden and Elizabeth, New Jersey as the site for his latest refinery; construction was completed by 1909, and it began processing 20,000 barrels of crude oil a day^[2]. In 1911, Standard Oil was broken up into smaller units, and Standard Oil Company of New Jersey became Esso; the facility was renamed the Esso Refinery.

In 1920, scientists there created the world's first petrochemical, isopropyl alcohol.

The Ethyl Corporation, a joint venture of General Motors and Standard Oil, built a plant for the manufacture of tetra-ethyl lead (the "lead" in leaded gasoline) at the refinery over the course of three months in 1924. Within the first two months of its operation, the facility had seventeen cases of severe lead poisoning leading to hallucinations and insanity, and then five deaths in quick succession. The plant was shut down by the State of New Jersey in October, and Standard was forbidden to manufacture TEL there again without state permission^[3].

In 1949, Esso invested $26 million in a gasoline refinery employing catalytic cracking. It remains the largest such facility in the world.

A new petrochemical production facility called the Bayway Chemical Plant was launched at the refinery by the Exxon Chemical Company (an Esso subsidiary) in 1965. In 1973, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was renamed Exxon, and the facility likewise became known as the Exxon Refinery.

In 1993, the Tosco Company bought the refinery from Exxon, although the Exxon Chemical Company continued to run the Chemical Plant.

The Morristown and Erie Railway became the contract switcher for the refinery in 1995, and set up the Bayshore Terminal Company to handle the management of 8,000 railroad cars full of chemicals each year.

In 1999, the Infineum company (a joint project of Exxon Chemicals, Shell International Chemicals and Shell Chemical) took over operation of the Chemical Plant. Infineum researches and produces crankcase lubricant additives, fuel additives, and specialty lubricant additives, as well as automatic transmission fluids, gear oils, and industrial oils. ^[4]

Tosco was bought by Phillips Petroleum in 2001, which was merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips in 2002.

Environmental issues

In late 2003, the refinery came under scrutiny for its high cancer rates among its work population and local residents. As a result, local ABC affiliate WABC-TV (Channel 7), New York, ran a feature about this incident. The refinery has since come under scrutiny by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

2005 Pollution Control Measures Mandated

Due to a lawsuit settlement, ConocoPhillips will take the following actions at Bayway:

• Install a cover on wastewater separator or a new covered separator, and controls, by December 2008. This measure, which will cost at least $8 million, will reduce emissions of VOCs at the treatment unit by 95 percent.
• Install a new fuel gas system by December 2010 to burn cleaner natural gas instead of fuel oil, reducing SO2 emissions by thousands of tons per year. This will cost $28 million to $38 million.
• Install new pollution controls on heaters and boilers by December 2010 at cost of $20 million, reducing annual NOx emissions by approximately 900 tons.
• Enhance pollution controls on a unit that converts crude oil into gasoline by December 2006, reducing annual NOx emissions by approximately 400 tons.
• Reduce emissions of VOCs by implementing an enhanced leak detection and repair program.
• Reduce VOC and acid gas emissions by minimizing flaring, the uncontrolled burning of emissions that bypass controls.
• Audit and reduce toxic benzene emissions.

References

See also

• List of oil refineries
• ConocoPhillips

Map

• Bayway Refinery is at coordinates 40°38′13″N 74°13′06″W / 40.636818, -74.21844Coordinates: 40°38′13″N 74°13′06″W / 40.636818, -74.21844