World's Top 21 Largest Oil Refineries -- OGJ

by Aaron and David Rachovich

World's Largest Refineries (minimum capacity of 400,000 b/cd) 

Rank	Company	Location	Crude Capacity, barrels per calendar day (b/cd)
1.	Paraguana Refining Center*	Cardon/Judibana, Falcon, Venezuela	940,000
2.	SK Corp.	Ulsan, South Korea	817,000
3.	GS Caltex Corp.	Yeosu, South Korea	750,000
4.	Reliance Petroleum Ltd. [merged with RIL since 2009]	Jamnagar, India	660,000
5.	ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co.	Jurong/Pulau Ayer Chawan, Singapore	605,000
6.	Reliance Industries Ltd. [RIL]	Jamnagar, India	580,000
7.	S-Oil Corp.	Onsan, South Korea	565,000
8.	ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co.	Baytown,** Texas, USA	560,500
9.	Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco)	Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia	550,000
10.	Formosa Petrochemical Co.	Mailiao, Taiwan	540,000
11.	ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co.	Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA	503,500
12.	Hovensa LLC	St. Croix, Virgin Islands, USA	500,000
13.	Kuwait National Petroleum Co.	Mina Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait	466,000
14.	Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd.	Pulau, Bukom, Singapore	462,000
15.	BP PLC	Texas City, Texas, USA	451,250
16.	Citgo Petroleum Corp.	Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA	440,000
17.	Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC	Garyville, Louisiana, USA	436,000
18.	Shell Nederland Raffinaderij B.V.	Pernis, Netherlands	404,000
19.	Sinopec	Zhenhai, China	403,000
20.	Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco)	Rabigh, Saudi Arabia	400,000
21.	Saudi Aramco-Mobil	Yanbu, Saudi Arabia	400,000

Notes: RIL's new refinery in the Special Economic Zone at Jamnagar is the world's sixth largest and has a Nelson Complexity Index of 14.0, making it one of the most complex refineries globally. The refinery has a capacity of processing 580,000 barrels of crude oil per stream day. With the commissioning of the new refinery in its SEZ, Jamnagar has now become the petroleum hub of the world. With 1.24 million barrels per day of nominal crude processing capacity (i.e., No. 6 Jamnagar + No. 4 Jamnagar, above), it is the single largest refining complex in the world. This is equivalent to 1.6% [sic] of global capacity or one third of India’s capacity, and places RIL amongst the top ten private refiners globally. Please read RIL's website, here. For 2010, OGJ's survey shows total capacity at more than 88.2 million b/cd in 662 refineries, an increase of 1 million b/cd over the figure for 2009 of 87.2 million b/cd for 661 refineries. OGJ's refinery survey for 2008 listed a global capacity of 85.6 million b/cd in 655 refineries. – Please read Warren R. True and Leena Koottungal, "Global Capacity Growth Slows, But Asian Refineries Bustle," OGJ, Dec 6, 2010. South Korea is home to three of the ten largest crude oil refineries in the world – SK Energy's Ulsan (No. 2), GS Caltex's Yeosu (No. 3) and S-Oil's Onsan (No. 7), according to OGJ data above.

*The Paraguana Refining Center (Centro Refinacion Paraguana/CRP) or Complex is the result of the merger in 1997 of three refineries: the Amuay refinery, the Cardon refinery and the Bajo Grande refinery, and currently considered the world's second largest refinery complex, after the Jamnagar complex (No. 4 Jamnagar + No. 6 Jamnagar, above) in India---please see notes above. The Paraguana Refining Center has a Nelson Complexity Index of 7.1. It has the nominal capacity to refine 955,000 barrels of crude oil per day. -- D.R.

**Update 1: Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco became co-owners of the largest U.S. refinery when a new crude distillation unit at their joint-venture Motiva Enterprises Port Arthur, Texas, plant received oil for the first time. The 325,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) atmospheric crude distillation unit that started processing combines with existing crude units to give Motiva's Port Arthur, Texas, refinery a total crude oil refining capacity of 600,000 bpd, said Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry during the company's first quarter earnings call. With the startup of the new Port Arthur crude unit, Exxon Mobil Corp's Baytown, Texas, refinery becomes the second-largest refinery in the United States---please see "Motiva Port Arthur refinery becomes U.S. largest - Shell," Reuters, Apr 26, 2012. Update 2: But by far the biggest refining story in North America in 2012 centered on the massive expansion at Motiva Enterprise LLC's Port Arthur, Tex., refinery. The 325,000 bpd, $10 billion expansion, largest at a US refinery in nearly 40 years and designed for feedstock flexibility, was dedicated on May 31, raising capacity to 600,000 bpd and making it the largest US refinery. On June 9, 2012, however, the new crude distillation unit sprung leaks traced to massive corrosion; a fire ensued and the expansion was shut down. Motiva has since traced the problem to faulty design. The unit will not restart before the end of first-quarter 2013, if then---please see Warren R. True and Leena Koottungal, "Asia, Middle East lead modest recovery in global refining," OGJ, Dec 3, 2012 -- D.R.
 

Source: Oil & Gas Journal, Dec 6, 2010.

(Also, please see my post "Top 10 Largest Refining Companies in Asia, the USA and Western Europe -- OGJ," here. And my post "World's Top 25 Largest Refining Companies, Jan 1, 2011 -- OGJ," here. Furthermore, please see Aaron and David Rachovich, "Top 28 Largest Refineries in the U.S. as of Jan 1, 2011 -- EIA," and David Rachovich, "Top 20 Largest Refining Companies/Refiners in the U.S. as of Jan 1, 2011." Update -- please see my post "World's Top 21 Largest Oil Refineries -- OGJ," Feb 7, 2012 . Breaking News: On August 25, 2012, a massive blast at Venezuela's largest oil refinery, the 645,000 b/d Amuay refinery (part of the Paraguana Refinery Complex, please see table and notes above), on Paraguana peninsula, has left at least 39 people dead and dozens others injured. A gas leak is being blamed for the blast. Update 2: "World's Top 21 Largest Oil Refineries -- OGJ," OGJ, Jan 6, 2013 -- D.R.)