An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemical feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day.
Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure organic compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. Most petroleum is converted into petroleum products, which include several classes of fuels.
Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert naphthas from crude oil into liquid products called reformates, which are premium "blending stocks" for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation also produces significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas, which is fed into other refinery processes such as hydrocracking. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis, which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes.
Hydrodesulfurization or hydrodesulphurisation (HDS), also called hydrotreatment or hydrotreating, is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulfur (S) from natural gas and from refined petroleum products, such as gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and fuel oils. The purpose of removing the sulfur, and creating products such as ultra-low-sulfur diesel, is to reduce the sulfur dioxide emissions that result from using those fuels in automotive vehicles, aircraft, railroad locomotives, ships, gas or oil burning power plants, residential and industrial furnaces, and other forms of fuel combustion.
The Gujarat Refinery is an oil refinery located at Koyali, Vadodara District in Gujarat, Western India. It is the third largest refinery owned by Indian Oil Corporation after Paradip and Panipat Refinery. The refinery is currently under projected expansion to 18 million tonnes per year.
Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL), formerly known as Madras Refineries Limited (MRL), is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Limited which is under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Government of India. It is headquartered in Chennai, India. It was formed as a joint venture in 1965 between the Government of India (GOI), Amoco and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), having a shareholding in the ratio 74%: 13%: 13% respectively. From the grassroots stage CPCL Refinery was set up with an installed capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per year in a record time of 27 months at a cost of ₹430 million (US$5.0 million) without any time or cost overrun.
Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) is a crude oil refinery in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest public sector refinery in India with a production capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per year. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited and later renamed as Kochi Refineries Limited, it was acquired by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in the year 2006. The refinery is situated at Ambalamugal, around 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the city centre.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking which is the largest government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer in the country. It accounts for around 70 percent of India's domestic production of crude oil and around 84 percent of natural gas. Headquartered in Delhi, ONGC is under the ownership of the Government of India and administration of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It was founded on 14 August 1956 by the Government of India. In November 2010, the Government of India conferred the Maharatna status to ONGC.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian public sector oil and gas company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's second-largest government-owned downstream oil producer, whose operations are overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It operates three refineries in Bina, Kochi and Mumbai. BPCL was ranked 309th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations in 2020, and 1052nd on Forbes Global 2000 in 2023.
Petron Corporation is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying more than a third of the country's oil requirements. It operates a refinery in Limay, Bataan with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day (29,000 m3/d). From the refinery, Petron moves its products mainly by sea to 32 depots and terminals throughout the country.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is a government agency in Bangladesh to import, distribute and market oil and petroleum products. Amin-Ul-Ahsan is the chairperson of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries S.A. is a petroleum industry company based in Greece focusing on oil refining and trading. It is a leading force in its sector in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is one of two crude oil refineries in Ghana. In 1977, the Government of Ghana became the sole shareholder. The name of the refinery was changed to the Tema Oil Refinery in 1991. The refinery was first named the Ghanaian Italian Petroleum Company (GHAIP).
National Refinery Limited (NRL) is a Pakistani oil refinery which is a subsidiary of UK-domiciled Attock Oil Company. It is based in Korangi Creek, Karachi.
The Padma Oil Company Limited formerly known as Burmah Eastern Limited, is a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), a statutory organization of the government under the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources. It is registered with the joint-stock company as a public limited company under the Company Act 1913. The company's head office is located on Strand Road in Chittagong, officially known as Chattogram. It is one of three state owned oil distribution companies in Bangladesh with the others being Jamuna Oil Company and Meghna Petroleum Limited.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company,, is a Nigeria-based oil and gas company primarily specializing in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products. It is headquartered in Port Harcourt metropolitan area of Rivers State, southeastern Nigeria. The company is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Bangladesh is the sixteenth-largest producer of natural gas in Asia. Gas supplies meet 56% of domestic energy demand. However, the country faces an acute energy crisis in meeting the demands of its vast and growing population. Bangladesh is a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products. The energy sector is dominated by state-owned companies, including Petrobangla and the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, Gazprom and ONGC are major international companies engaged in Bangladesh's hydrocarbon industry, with Chevron's gas fields accounting for 50% of natural gas production.
Indian Oil Corporation Limited, trading as IndianOil, is an Indian multinational oil and gas company under the ownership of Government of India and administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It is a public sector undertaking which is registered in Mumbai but headquartered in New Delhi. It is the largest government-owned oil producer in the country both in terms of capacity and revenue. It has consolidated refining capacity of 80.55MMTPA.
Bangchak Corporation Public Company Limited (BCP), previously known as Bangchak Petroleum, is a petroleum and energy conglomerate in Thailand. It was founded as a state-owned company in 1984, and is now listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, doing business in oil refining and retail, as well as sustainable energy through various subsidiaries.
Meghna Petroleum Limited is a Bangladesh petroleum company owned by Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, a state owned corporation. Mir Saifullah-Al-Khaled is the managing director of Meghna Petroleum Limited. Md. Anisur Rahman, Senior Secretary at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division is the chairman of the Board of Directors of Meghna Petroleum Limited. It is one of three major petroleum corporations owned by the Government of Bangladesh along with Padma Oil Company and Jamuna Oil Company.
