ConocoPhillips Whitegate Refinery

Acid Plant Database June 13, 2022

Owner	Irving Oil Whitegate Refinery Limited
Location	Whitegate, Midleton Co. Cork Ireland
Background	1959 - Irish Refining Company (operated by ESSO) 1981 - Refinery closed 1982 - Irish National Petroleum Corporation 2001 - Tosco 2001 - Tosco taken over by Phillips Petroleum 2002 - Phillips merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips 2012 - Phillips 66 assumed ownership 2016 - Purchased by Irving Oil
Website	www.irvingoil.com
Plant	Whitegate Refinery
Coordinates*	51° 49' 10" N, 8° 14' 39" W (site)
Type of Plant	Acid Regeneration Wet-Gas Sulphuric Acid (WSA)
Gas Source	Hydrogen Sulphide Gas
Plant Capacity	30 MTPD
SA/DA	-
Emissions	-
Status	-
Year Built	2012
Technology	Haldor Topsoe
Contractor	-
Remarks	-
Pictures
General	-
References	-
News	August 3, 2016 - Canadian refiner Irving Oil signed an agreement to purchase the 72,000 b/d Whitegate refinery in Ireland from US downstream firm Phillips 66 today. Irving oil - operator of Canada's largest refinery, the 300,000 b/d St John plant in New Brunswick - will continue to run Whitegate as a refinery and maintain the existing workforce. Irving expects the purchase to be completed by the end of the third quarter, at which point it will assume full ownership of the Whitegate plant. Phillips 66 will continue to operate the refinery as usual until the transaction closes. Under Phillips 66 Whitegate processed light, low-sulphur crudes mainly from the North Sea, north Africa and west Africa. In 2015, Whitegate processed 24.6mm bl of crude — 84pc of this was from Norway, the UK and Denmark, 14pc from Ivory Coast, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria and 2pc from Azerbaijan. Irving Oil has previously imported crude from west Africa and the North Sea to its Canadian refinery. Phillips had been looking to sell Whitegate since late last year, but was contractually obliged to ensure the plant kept running until July, under the terms of sale agreed with the Irish government in 2001. Those terms expired on 1 August, but Irving has said it will continue to operate Whitegate as a refinery, despite not being under a contractual obligation to do so. The Irish minister for communications, climate action and environment, Denis Naughten, welcomed the announcement, highlighting the importance of the Whitegate refinery to Ireland's energy security and economic growth. Whitegate is Ireland's only refinery and supplies up to 40pc of the country's oil products, according to the Irish government. Phillips 66 initially put the Whitegate refinery and associated marketing business up for sale in June 2013, then dropped the idea in April 2014 before trying again the following year. In February 2015, Phillips 66 sold the Bantry Bay crude and refined products storage facility, in southwest Ireland, to midstream asset operator Zenith Energy Partners. The terminal has over 8mn bl of storage capacity. It has one of the largest and deepest drafts in Europe and holds a portion of Ireland's strategic petroleum reserve.

MTPD - Metric Tonne per Day STPD - Short Ton per Day
MTPA - Metric Tonne per Annum STPA - Short Ton per Annum
SA - Single Absorption
DA - Double Absorption

* Coordinates can be used to locate plant on Google Earth


Sulphuric Acid on the Web^TM	Technical Manual	DKL Engineering, Inc.