 BP Refinery in Carson, from Wilmington Ave. near E 223rd St. | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| City | Carson |
| Refinery details | |
| Commissioned | 1923 |
| Capacity | 265,000 bbl/d (42,100 m3/d) |
| No. of employees | 1218, plus approximately 600 contract employees |
| Refining units | alkylation, isomerisation, distillation of crude oil, hydrocracking, reforming catalytic, cracking catalytic, thermal catalytic, desulphuration, polymerization, hydrodesalkylation |
The BP Carson Refinery is an oil refinery in Carson, California, within the Los Angeles Basin, owned and operated by BP. With a throughput of 265,000 barrels of oil per day it is the second-largest refinery in California and 18th-largest in the United States;[1] in addition, as of 2009 the facility had the second-highest assessed value of any property in Los Angeles County (after the Chevron El Segundo Refinery; the Getty Museum came in third).[2] Most of the crude oil coming in to the refinery is from Alaska, arriving by way of the Port of Los Angeles, and approximately three-quarters of the output of the refinery is gasoline for the U.S. market.[3][4]
History edit
The 1920s was a period of rapid development in the petroleum industry. In the southern part of the Los Angeles basin, enormous oil fields were found, one after another. The Long Beach field, discovered in 1921, was the world's richest field in barrels of oil per surface acre. In 1922, the Torrance Oil Field was discovered to the west, and in 1923 the Dominguez Oil Field to the north. Storage and processing facilities were needed nearby. In 1932, the Wilmington Oil Field, fourth-largest in the United States, was found to the south and southeast of the new refinery.
The land currently occupied by the refinery was part of Rancho San Pedro, a land grant originally given to Juan Jose Dominguez. Pan American Petroleum was the first developer. They sold the refinery and storage tanks to Richfield Petroleum in 1937, who expanded it to a 50,000 barrel-per-day capacity.
Dominguez field; early ownership; Richfield. A lot of good history here: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/downloads/V/verfied_site_reports/N_America/Carson_VSR_2008.pdf
Various lawsuits over pollution -- 2003 suit http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-98769954.html
2005 lawsuit http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-131321934.html -- thousands of air quality violations, some "knowing and willful"
Settled March 2005 for $81 million -- largest ever recorded by the South Coast AQMD. I believe that ended both suits. Details in the LA times article: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/mar/18/local/me-aqmd18
Maintenance shutdowns early 2000s (see Highbeam articles)
Feb 1, 2011 put up for sale http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/02/business/la-fi-bp-arco-sale-20110202 -- still for sale in March 2012 -- http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-06/bp-interested-in-adding-refining-capacity-in-asia-conn-says http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-283445448.html