History
The first oil refinery in the world was built in 1851 at Bathgate, Scotland, by Scottish chemist James Young shortly followed by Ignacy Łukasiewicz near Jasło, Poland from 1854 to 1856, but they were initially small as there was no real demand for refined fuel. As Łukasiewicz's kerosene lamp gained popularity, the refining industry grew in the area.
The world's first large refinery opened at Ploiești, Romania, in 1856-1857, with United States investment. After being taken over by Nazi Germany, the Ploiești refineries were bombed in Operation Tidal Wave by the Allies during the Oil Campaign of World War II. Another early large refinery is Oljeön, Sweden (1875) (Swedish name means The Petroleum Isle), now preserved as a museum near Engelsberg Ironworks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and part of the Ekomuseum Bergslagen.
At one point, the refinery in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia owned by Saudi Aramco was claimed to be the largest oil refinery in the world. For most of the 20th century, the largest refinery was the Abadan Refinery in Iran. This refinery suffered extensive damage during the Iran-Iraq war. The world's largest refinery complex is the Jamnagar Refinery Complex, consisting of two refineries side by side operated by Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar, India with a combined production capacity of 1,240,000 barrels per day (197,000 m3/d) (J-1 660,000 bbl/d (105,000 m3/d), J-2 580,000 bbl/d (92,000 m3/d). PDVSA's Paraguana refinery complex in Venezuela with a capacity of 956,000 bbl/d (152,000 m3/d) and SK Energy's Ulsan in South Korea with 840,000 bbl/d (134,000 m3/d) are the second and third largest, respectively.
Read more about this topic: Oil Refinery
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