Where Do They Locate Oil Refineries?
The complicated procedure in securing a setting for an oil refinery is one of the most complicated procedures in constructing an oil refinery.
First, they must find land that is suitable. Since oil refineries are large, sprawling structures that take up a lot of space, they must find enough space to build one. Refineries typically take up thousands of acres. One of the most recent ones being built in Arizona will require 3,900 acres of land, and process 400,000 barrels a day*. The largest refinery in the world, the Paragua Refining Complex in Venezula, processes almost 1 million barrels per day, and is five times as big. They must also find land that is far from large residential areas due to the noise, pollution, and traffic problems that would affect those areas. Usually they use unused farmland, though this causes a problem because it affects low-income, rural households.
*Size of oil refineries is typically measured in barrels/day; not, acres.
Refineries must also be near large bodies of water or ports, due to the large amount of water necessary used to process oil, especially in the purification and cooling processes, and for pipeline and cargo deliveries by way of ship. Half of the crude oil that refineries in California receive is imported from Alaska or foreign countries by way of water, which is why many refineries in California are located in the Bay Area. In addition, refineries use water to deliver products to markets. A refinery located on the Missouri River uses 10-12 million gallons of water from the river daily. The ConocoPhillips Refinery in Texas, the second largest refinery in the United States, uses a total of 456 million gallons of water each day from the Gulf Coast. This water is also used a lot to create steam for power and to use in the refining process. Refineries also need a lot of water to aid them in waste product disposal. This is why refineries are usually located near rivers or on shores.
Another factor in the siting of refineries is it’s proximity to raw materials and other sources. First, since refineries use a large amount of electricity, it must be in proximity to an electrical plant, especially in the case of an outage. Most California refineries are clustered in three areas, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and just north of Los Angeles in Bakerfield and Santa Maria. This is because there are three major power plants that they must be close to, either Pacific Gas and Electric, South California Edison, or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Also it is helpful if refineries are located close to or where there is enough space to build petrochemical plants, solvent manufacturing plants, and other similar plants that further process the crude oil into products at a large scale.
The most important factor in finding a location for a refinery is that the location passes important Government and EPA regulations based on the impact that the refinery would have on the environment, close residential areas, endangered species, and Native American burial grounds. More Information on Government Regulation of refineries can be found HERE.
A different, very thorough, searchable map of refineries can be found HERE.