Ferndale Refinery

The Ferndale Refinery, owned by Phillips 66, has 101,000 b/d capacity,[1] making it, as of 2015, the 64th largest in the USA, and produces predominantly transportation fuels consumed in local markets. The plant is located in the Cherry Point Industrial Zone, west of Ferndale, WA. Its secondary processing facilities include a fluid catalytic cracker, an alkylation unit, hydotreating units and a naphtha reformer. The plant follows a 10-5-3-2 crack spread, meaning that for 10 barrels of crude feedstock the refinery produces 5 barrels of gasoline, 3 barrels of distillate and 2 barrels of fuel oil.

The Ferndale Refinery was the first of five currently operating in Washington state, built by General Petroleum Corp in 1954. The original capacity was rated at 35,000 barrels per stream day. General Petroleum was a subsidiary of Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York) and was integrated into Mobil Chemical Co when the company formed in 1960.

BP took control of the refinery in 1988 when its wholly owned subsidiary, Sohio, received the plant from Mobil Oil in exchange for $152.5 million and crude oil inventories.[2]

In 1993, Tosco Corp, a California-based downstream and marketing corporation, bought the refinery from BP. The deal included BP’s retail stations and marketing assets across Washington and Oregon.[3] BP left the Northwest refining market only five years after entry.

Phillips Petroleum Company purchased Tosco for $7 billion in February 2001, and assumed control of the refinery thereafter.[4] With the deal’s close, Phillips became the second largest refiner in the U.S. and obtained refineries on both coasts. Even after the Tosco purchase, Phillips sought further expansion. Phillips and Conoco Inc announced a merger in November 2001, forming ConocoPhillips, the new controlling entity of the Ferndale Refinery. This new supermajor boasted the nation's largest downstream system (as of 2001). In 2012 ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets as a new independent energy company, Phillips 66, which still operates the Ferndale Refinery. ConocoPhillips became the second company to abandon the vertically integrated model, following Marathon Oil Corporation’s decision to spin off its downstream assets in 2011.

References

  1. ↑ "EIA Table 3. Capacity of Operable Petroleum Refineries by State as of January 1, 2015." (PDF). Energy Information Administration. January 1, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
  2. ↑ "COMPANY NEWS; Mobil Oil to Sell Refinery to Sohio". The New York Times. 1988-10-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
  3. ↑ "Login to access the Oil & Gas Journal Subscriber Premium features.". www.ogj.com. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
  4. ↑ "Oil Merger: Phillips Buys Tosco for $7B". ABC News. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2015-10-03.


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