# Coryton Refinery may close



## Pat Kennedy

It was announced yesterday that the Coryton Oil refinery in Essex may be in danger of shutting down after its Swiss owners, Petroplus filed for bankruptcy.
I'm sure many on this site have sailed in and out of Coryton over the years, I certainly did when I was on the Vacuum Pioneer which did the lube oil run between Coryton and Birkenhead.
In those days Coryton was owned and operated by Mobil Oil, I wonder when and why it was sold?
I also wonder how a major oil refinery which supplys petrol and diesel to most of South East England can go bust.
It seems that the multinational oil companies are pulling out of refining their product, Shell have recently sold their Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port to a company called Essar which is based in Mumbai.

Pat


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## Pat McCardle

Selling England by the pound?


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## Trader

Pat,
It was sold by BP in 2007 to the Swiss company Petroplus. On our local South East news tonight it was reported that it would be opening up again within the next 24/48 hours.
I passed it many times when I sailed out of London but never went there.

Alec.


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## pilot

Pat Kennedy said:


> I
> In those days Coryton was owned and operated by Mobil Oil, I wonder when and why it was sold?
> Pat


Pat. Coryton was sold to BP following the Exxon Mobil Merger. 2000(ish)

Rgds.


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## Pat Kennedy

I was there several times while in the Vacuum Pioneer, a lovely little coastal tanker, with the Flying Horse on her funnel, well known on the Mersey, she was based in Birkenhead.
Coryton was her usual destination although sometimes she went to another refinery in the Thames Estuary, Shellhaven, and sometimes to Rotterdam.
I went on leave from Coryton once, it took me longer to get to Euston from there than from Euston to Liverpool. Coryton is a desolate out of the way place.
Regards, 
Pat


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## Ron Stringer

Pat Kennedy said:


> Coryton is a desolate out of the way place.
> Regards,
> Pat


Where else would you put a refinery?


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## pjdrpilot

pilot said:


> Pat. Coryton was sold to BP following the Exxon Mobil Merger. 2000(ish)
> 
> Rgds.


I spent 13 happy years as a berthing pilot at Coryton and Shellhaven retireing in 1999 when it was still Mobil.


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## Ray Mac

Pat Kennedy said:


> I was there several times while in the Vacuum Pioneer, a lovely little coastal tanker, with the Flying Horse on her funnel, well known on the Mersey, she was based in Birkenhead.
> Coryton was her usual destination although sometimes she went to another refinery in the Thames Estuary, Shellhaven, and sometimes to Rotterdam.
> I went on leave from Coryton once, it took me longer to get to Euston from there than from Euston to Liverpool. Coryton is a desolate out of the way place.
> Regards,
> Pat


Was that tanker run by Stevies Pat?(Pint)(Pint)

Ray(*))


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## Pat Kennedy

Ron Stringer said:


> Where else would you put a refinery?


Well Stanlow is pretty close to the bustling metropolis of Ellesmere Port, and Fawley is in the midst of a pleasant area. Only Pembroke rivals Coryton for desolation.
Pat


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## Pat Kennedy

Burned Toast said:


> Was that tanker run by Stevies Pat?(Pint)(Pint)
> 
> Ray(*))


Ray, 
I never heard Stevie Clarks mentioned while I was there.
As far as I knew, it was owned and operated by Vacuum Oil, an arm of Mobil Oil at the time. 
She was a good ship, good feeder but rolled on wet grass. My bunk was fore and aft and sometimes I needed to wedge myself in with lifejackets to prevent ricochetting off the bulkhead!
Pat(Pint)


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## kauvaka

I joined the Vacuum Pioneer in Tilbury on 21 October 1961 and signed off in Birkenhead on 21 December 1961. She used to ship them green down the E/R vents. Wasn't Shellhaven where Joe Shell owned the local pub? Nowhere near as good as Ivy's at the IoG. Coryton and Shellhaven both desolate places miles from anywhere.


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## Ron Stringer

Pat Kennedy said:


> Well Stanlow is pretty close to the bustling metropolis of Ellesmere Port, and Fawley is in the midst of a pleasant area. Only Pembroke rivals Coryton for desolation.
> Pat


Pat, 

I don't think that any of your examples (and I have been to them all) depart from the norm that I experienced during my 3 years on tankers (admittedly only black oil carriers) - that is:

1. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the ship end of the jetty to the shore.

2. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the shore end of the jetty to the refinery gate.

3. A blo*dy long, expensive taxi ride from the refinery gate to the nearest centre of civilisation.

Then with a full cargo of local beer aboard .....

4. A blo*dy long, _even more expensive taxi_ ride from the nearest centre of civilisation back to the refinery gate.

5. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the refinery gate to the shore of the jetty.

6. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the shore end of the jetty to the ship.

7. A near vertical climb up an accommodation ladder to the deck.

Even though at some terminals items 2 and 5 were replaced by a free minibus or similar, they had no comparison with Newcastle Quay or Huskisson Dock.


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## Malky Glaister

Was there on GULF BRITON. Stanford le Hope nearest station with good service to Fenchurch Street. Standford was a dump!

From an engineering point of view Coryton was interesting. It was full of museum pieces and you could walk from gate to berth, 1970 true enough. Junior Engineer in those days!! Good memories

regards Malky


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## pilot

*Shellhaven Berthing Pilots.*



pjdrpilot said:


> I spent 13 happy years as a berthing pilot at Coryton and Shellhaven retireing in 1999 when it was still Mobil.



Thought that the berthing pilots were rotated and not permanent appointments. Or was this rotational system only applicable for certain tonnages? 

I was Master on the Matco tankers and our berthing pilots were not a constant feature. Memories of farwells when some had completed their spell of berthing pilots still remain. 

Rgds.


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## Pat Kennedy

Ron Stringer said:


> Pat,
> 
> I don't think that any of your examples (and I have been to them all) depart from the norm that I experienced during my 3 years on tankers (admittedly only black oil carriers) - that is:
> 
> 1. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the ship end of the jetty to the shore.
> 
> 2. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the shore end of the jetty to the refinery gate.
> 
> 3. A blo*dy long, expensive taxi ride from the refinery gate to the nearest centre of civilisation.
> 
> Then with a full cargo of local beer aboard .....
> 
> 4. A blo*dy long, _even more expensive taxi_ ride from the nearest centre of civilisation back to the refinery gate.
> 
> 5. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the refinery gate to the shore of the jetty.
> 
> 6. A blo*dy long, exposed walk from the shore end of the jetty to the ship.
> 
> 7. A near vertical climb up an accommodation ladder to the deck.
> 
> Even though at some terminals items 2 and 5 were replaced by a free minibus or similar, they had no comparison with Newcastle Quay or Huskisson Dock.


Ron, 
If you went to Stanlow, (there was no long jetty, that was at Tranmere oil terminal), you got a little ferry from the oil dock ,across the Manchester ship canal, and there was a shuttle bus to take you to gate 2 on Oil Sites Road. They wouldn't let you walk through the refinery.
At gate 2 was a bus stop and a phone box, where you could catch the bus into Ellesmere Port, or phone for a taxi, and then the world was your oyster!
Pat(Pint)


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## Pat Thompson

Greetings,

I do remember going to Shellhaven and Thameshaven in the 1960s. Is Coryton one of them renamed?


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## Pat Kennedy

Pat Thompson said:


> Greetings,
> 
> I do remember going to Shellhaven and Thameshaven in the 1960s. Is Coryton one of them renamed?


Pat, 
They were originally three seperate places. I never went to Thames Haven as such, but at some stage Shellhaven and Thames Haven were combined, and Thames Haven was more of a tank farm than a refinery. They were all very close to each other, plus there was the BP refinery at the Isle of Grain just across the way, an even more desolate and isolated place.
Pat


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## iain48

Worked on a couple of construction jobs in Coryton and also one or two in Shellhaven. Worked in Coryton as Mobil and BP don't know anything about this current owner. During my twenty odd years living in Essex I probably done about six years between the two refineries. Much preferred the Shell site, unfortunately it closed in the late nineties early 2000's. They were always a good fall back job if there was not much other work around.

Iain


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## Ron Stringer

Pat Kennedy said:


> Ron,
> If you went to Stanlow, (there was no long jetty, that was at Tranmere oil terminal), you got a little ferry from the oil dock ,across the Manchester ship canal, and there was a shuttle bus to take you to gate 2 on Oil Sites Road. They wouldn't let you walk through the refinery.
> At gate 2 was a bus stop and a phone box, where you could catch the bus into Ellesmere Port, or phone for a taxi, and then the world was your oyster!
> Pat(Pint)


Not a patch on Pomona Dock, at the honest end of the MSC.


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## Pat Kennedy

Ron Stringer said:


> Not a patch on Pomona Dock, at the honest end of the MSC.


Pomona docks. I remember that place, built on the site of a zoo, somehow appropriate. Was there an oil terminal there? I dont recall one.
Nothing much remains there now.
Pat


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## Ron Stringer

Pat Kennedy said:


> Was there an oil terminal there?
> Pat


Not that I know of, but if you docked there on a general cargo ship you could walk to a pub without getting frozen or soaked to the skin. Unlike Stanlow (or Tranmere, which I also visited frequently). 

I was just making my point that tankers, unlike general cargo ships, rarely visited anywhere that you would want to visit. Missed out on the luboil vessels which apparently were more civilised.

My first few trips on a tanker were shuttles between Tranmere and Heysham, with Shell. (I had asked for a tanker to get the extra money and Far East allowance - so was somewhat disappointed to find myself shuttling along the Lancashire coast).

My last tanker was 15 hours in port at each end of the Ras Tanura-Pointe a Pierre (Trinidad) shuttle - 28 days around the Cape between ports. But in compensation for the lack of social life, the money was better and that is what I wanted at the time.


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## Pat Kennedy

Ron, 
I did some of that Tranmere-Heysham shuttling on the Pallium, the only large tanker I sailed in. A good ship, but as you say, going ashore was a pain.
Regards, 
Pat


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## Brian Leaf

Pat, All the oil majors are busting a gut to unload there UK refinery,s Did turbine overhaul in September at Lindsey oil (Total) Was told Total had the place up for sale. Texaco Chevron at Pembroke now Vallero. Stanlow now Messer. BP Grangemouth now Ineos. News South East yesterday reported that Coryton will hopefully be kept operational as it was the only profitable site in the Petroplus group. Only company that sems not be selling is Exxon-Mobil at Fawley. 
Brian


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## Pat Kennedy

kauvaka said:


> I joined the Vacuum Pioneer in Tilbury on 21 October 1961 and signed off in Birkenhead on 21 December 1961. She used to ship them green down the E/R vents. Wasn't Shellhaven where Joe Shell owned the local pub? Nowhere near as good as Ivy's at the IoG. Coryton and Shellhaven both desolate places miles from anywhere.


You were there before me then Kauvaka, I left her in Tilbury in Dec 1963. as you say, she submerged at the bar and surfaced somewhere round Southend on Sea.
Pat


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## brian3

the reason that all the oil majors put the for sale sign up at their refinerys can be traced back to one word bhopal after that (accident )now thought to account for 25000 lives no one wanted to go the way of union carbide it took bp over 15years to flog g/mouth do all roads for the present owners lead to switerland ineos.petroplus etc


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## pilot

Brian Leaf said:


> Pat, All the oil majors are busting a gut to unload there UK refinery,s Did turbine overhaul in September at Lindsey oil (Total) Was told Total had the place up for sale. Texaco Chevron at Pembroke now Vallero. Stanlow now Messer. BP Grangemouth now Ineos. News South East yesterday reported that Coryton will hopefully be kept operational as it was the only profitable site in the Petroplus group. Only company that sems not be selling is Exxon-Mobil at Fawley.
> Brian


Brian, it was said that the Russians were showing an interest in Lindsey, but still no takers.


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## jmcg

Pat & others

Stanlow complex is but a kernal of what it used to be in the mid and late 80's. Save for the Energy Recovery Plant and Shell Higher Olefins Plant (hugely profitable) the whole of the "North Side" has been raized to the ground. The "Blending Plant" remains too but not considered "downstream".

The remaining plants are old and well past their design and operational functions. The Cat Cracker for example is 28/9 years old and from my contacts there is in "poor condition".

The chemical plants are all but gone on the "South Side" too with only the "Alchohols" remaining in the Shell portfolio. Again, some of the plants served Joe Shell well for 50-60 years before being de-commissioned and razed. 

These corporate oil barons are no mugs; they off load their assets immediatlly their profitabilty has been maximised. Holding on to them potentially threatens the high profit margins. Coupled with high mainteance costs it is not an attractive proposition for them.

Essar have purchased an old complex at high cost. Only time will tell if they can extract a profit from it.

You might be interested in www.stanlow.org. Pictures of yours truly on there!


It would appear that that the swashbuckling financier Gary Flesch is in talks to purchase certain assets of Petroplus including Coryton. He is not an oilman!

Another nail in the coffin of the "heavy" industries is that of Thames Steel. They too have gone into administration potentially putting 400+ highly skilled steel men out of work. A number of dodgy deals with gentlemen from Russia and Georgia (that gave rise to litigation) may be a contributory factor in this case.


BW

J(Gleam)(Gleam)


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## jmcg

There are two Aframax tankers with crude cargoes anchored off or circling awaiting confirmation that their cargo fees will be honoured. From all accounts funding for refinery operation is secured until next week- after that no one knows.

Chinese tanker Lian Xing Hu is one of these with Ural crude.

BW

J(Gleam)(Gleam)


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## pilot

There was always the night life of "Stanford No Hope" to enjoy.


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