Where are the biggest refineries?
An oil refinery is an industrial plant where raw oil, or crude oil, as it is called, is refined and transformed into useful oils such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, heating oil etc. This conversion is done by a process called fractional distillation.
Crude oil is not very useful. Of course, there is the ‘sweet oil' or the low-sulphur oil which is used in marines, but it is necessary to refine the oil to get the above-mentioned refined oils. An oil refinery is built for that very purpose.
Oil refineries are essentially very large plants, refining hundreds of thousands of barrels of raw oil a day. Because the demand for fuel is high too, these plants keep working constantly, sometimes, even for months at end.
Some of the biggest oil refineries have come under severe criticism for emitting poisonous gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide. But it is also true that the world needs many more refineries to meet the demand for petrol and petroleum products.
So where are the biggest refineries? Statisticians always try to keep updating with the data on where are the biggest refineries in the world.
Where are the biggest refineries, in the Middle East?
The oil-rich companies always have a large number of refineries too. Saudi Arabia is probably where you can find the biggest refineries. Being naturally very rich in oil production, this country is known to be the top producer in the Middle East. It already has multi-billion dollar contracts to export oil all over the world. Saudi Aramco is the biggest of the refineries in that state. Saudi Aramco also has tied up with several big refineries across the world, thus constructing major refineries there too. One of the world's biggest refineries, Saudi Aramco is spreading its wings farther and creating more and more refineries and upgrading its facilities in each one of them.
Where are the biggest refineries in Europe?
Some other large refineries in Europe can be found in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Greece and Italy.
Where are the biggest refineries, in the US located?
Some major refineries in the US are BP, Texas (which is the world's no.3 processor of oil), ExxonMobil (the nation's largest refinery). Shell is yet another very big oil producer and refiner.
Where are the biggest refineries, elsewhere in the world?
Caltex owns two major plants in Australia, and is the biggest refiner there. The Kurnell and the Lytton refineries, also in Australia, come under the top 10 refineries in that nation.
Other big names are China Petroleum, TotalFina, National Iranian Oil, Texaco, Chevron Corporation, Kuwait National Petroleum Company and Repsol-YPF.
Reliance Industries in India has big, ambitious plan of building the world's biggest refinery at just one location. It plans to build it by the year 2008. It already has a 33 million-ton refinery. Reliance Petroleum, a new off-shoot of the company, will be taking over this refinery. The whole idea to build this refinery is to export the entire produce to other countries. Discussions on this mega project are already under way and strategies of implementation are being planned methodically.
Oil prices are going up by the minute. The only method to bring the price down is by increasing the supply of oil, in other words, by some of the biggest refineries across the globe, so as to cater to the ever-increasing supply of petrol and petroleum products.
Crude oil is not very useful. Of course, there is the ‘sweet oil' or the low-sulphur oil which is used in marines, but it is necessary to refine the oil to get the above-mentioned refined oils. An oil refinery is built for that very purpose.
Oil refineries are essentially very large plants, refining hundreds of thousands of barrels of raw oil a day. Because the demand for fuel is high too, these plants keep working constantly, sometimes, even for months at end.
Some of the biggest oil refineries have come under severe criticism for emitting poisonous gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide. But it is also true that the world needs many more refineries to meet the demand for petrol and petroleum products.
So where are the biggest refineries? Statisticians always try to keep updating with the data on where are the biggest refineries in the world.
Where are the biggest refineries, in the Middle East?
The oil-rich companies always have a large number of refineries too. Saudi Arabia is probably where you can find the biggest refineries. Being naturally very rich in oil production, this country is known to be the top producer in the Middle East. It already has multi-billion dollar contracts to export oil all over the world. Saudi Aramco is the biggest of the refineries in that state. Saudi Aramco also has tied up with several big refineries across the world, thus constructing major refineries there too. One of the world's biggest refineries, Saudi Aramco is spreading its wings farther and creating more and more refineries and upgrading its facilities in each one of them.
Where are the biggest refineries in Europe?
Some other large refineries in Europe can be found in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Greece and Italy.
Where are the biggest refineries, in the US located?
Some major refineries in the US are BP, Texas (which is the world's no.3 processor of oil), ExxonMobil (the nation's largest refinery). Shell is yet another very big oil producer and refiner.
Where are the biggest refineries, elsewhere in the world?
Caltex owns two major plants in Australia, and is the biggest refiner there. The Kurnell and the Lytton refineries, also in Australia, come under the top 10 refineries in that nation.
Other big names are China Petroleum, TotalFina, National Iranian Oil, Texaco, Chevron Corporation, Kuwait National Petroleum Company and Repsol-YPF.
Reliance Industries in India has big, ambitious plan of building the world's biggest refinery at just one location. It plans to build it by the year 2008. It already has a 33 million-ton refinery. Reliance Petroleum, a new off-shoot of the company, will be taking over this refinery. The whole idea to build this refinery is to export the entire produce to other countries. Discussions on this mega project are already under way and strategies of implementation are being planned methodically.
Oil prices are going up by the minute. The only method to bring the price down is by increasing the supply of oil, in other words, by some of the biggest refineries across the globe, so as to cater to the ever-increasing supply of petrol and petroleum products.
