Sunbury Research Centre

Last updated
Sunbury Research Centre
BP Sunbury, BP International Ltd, International Centre for Business & Technology, ICBT Sunbury
Sunbury, BP Sunbury Business Park - geograph.org.uk - 405061.jpg
April 2007
Surrey UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Surrey
Former names Sunbury Research Station, BP Research Centre, Sunbury Research Laboratories
Alternative names Sunbury Business park
General information
Type Energy Research Centre
Address Chertsey Road, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey (former Middlesex), TW16 7LN [1]
Coordinates 51°26′N0°26′W / 51.43°N 0.43°W / 51.43; -0.43
Elevation 45 m (148 ft)
Current tenants 3,500 staff in 55 business teams
Completed 1917
Inaugurated 1917
Client BP
Landlord BP
Dimensions
Other dimensions 33 acres

The Sunbury Research Centre -- also known as ICBT Sunbury -- is a main research institute of BP in north-east Surrey.

A research institute or research center is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural science research, there are also many research institutes in the social science as well, especially for sociological and historical research purposes.

BP British multinational oil and gas company

BP plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012 made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels and wind power.

Surrey County of England

Surrey is a subdivision of the English region of South East England in the United Kingdom. A historic and ceremonial county, Surrey is also one of the home counties. The county borders Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, and Greater London to the northeast.

Contents

History

It began in 1917 as the Sunbury Research Station. Research began with the employment of two chemists to look into the viscosity of fuel oil for the Navy in the First World War, and the production of toluene. In the 1920s research took place into cracking, at the plant at Uphall in Scotland (West Lothian). The first new building opened in July 1931. 76 staff were there in 1929, 99 in 1934 and 197 in 1939.

Viscosity physical property of a fluid

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to gradual deformation by shear stress or tensile stress. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.

Fuel oil A heavy fraction obtained from petroleum distillation burned to generate power

Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. In general terms, fuel oil is any liquid fuel that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash point of approximately 42 °C (108 °F) and oils burned in cotton or wool-wick burners. Fuel oil is made of long hydrocarbon chains, particularly alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatics. The term fuel oil is also used in a stricter sense to refer only to the heaviest commercial fuel that can be obtained from crude oil, i.e., heavier than gasoline and naphtha.

Navy Military branch of service primarily concerned with naval warfare

A navy or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includes anything conducted by surface ships, amphibious ships, submarines, and seaborne aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications, training, and other fields. The strategic offensive role of a navy is projection of force into areas beyond a country's shores. The strategic defensive purpose of a navy is to frustrate seaborne projection-of-force by enemies. The strategic task of the navy also may incorporate nuclear deterrence by use of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Naval operations can be broadly divided between riverine and littoral applications, open-ocean applications, and something in between, although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division.

By the 1950s, BP Research was in a 39-acre site in Sunbury. [2] Geophysical research had also taken place at Kirklington Hall Research Station in Nottinghamshire, until 1957. Around 1958, the site was expanded with a new Physics laboratory and five other buildings. A Linear electron accelerator was installed. By early 1958, Kirklington Hall had been sold.

Geophysics Physics of the Earth and its vicinity

Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial relations; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.

Kirklington Hall Research Station was a geophysical research institute of BP in Kirklington, Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire County of England

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditional county town is Nottingham, though the county council is based in West Bridgford in the borough of Rushcliffe, at a site facing Nottingham over the River Trent.

Products that the British Petroleum Company made in the 1950s were BP Motor Spirit and BP Energol (visco-static motor oil). But Britain would not produce much oil of its own until the mid-1970s when North Sea oil arrived at the Forties Oil Field.

Motor oil lubricant used for lubrication of internal combustion engines

Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any of various substances comprising base oils enhanced with additives, particularly antiwear additive plus detergents, dispersants and, for multi-grade oils viscosity index improvers. Motor oil is used for lubrication of internal combustion engines. The main function of motor oil is to reduce friction and wear on moving parts and to clean the engine from sludge and varnish (detergents). It also neutralizes acids that originate from fuel and from oxidation of the lubricant (detergents), improves sealing of piston rings, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.

North Sea oil

North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.

Forties Oil Field

The Forties Oil Field is the largest oil field in the UK sector of the North Sea, 110 miles east of Aberdeen. It was discovered in 1970 and first produced oil in 1975 under ownership of British Petroleum, now called BP.

Construction

Three new buildings were built from 1998 as part of Phase 1. Since 2001, four new buildings were built as part of Phase 2.

Structure

It is situated off the A244 (via the A308) in the north of Sunbury-on-Thames, and Surrey, on the Surrey boundary with London. To the east nearby is Sunbury Common.

A308 road road in England

The A308, is a road in England in two parts. The road has four principal axes to stay no more than 3 miles (4.8 km) from the River Thames to run from Central London upstream to Bisham, Berkshire which faces the town of Marlow across the river, explaining its four main orientations. The road is dualled each way in the section furthest from the River Thames, in north Surrey and forms one of the motorway spurs to the large town of Maidenhead.

Sunbury-on-Thames town in Surrey, England

Sunbury-on-Thames is a suburban village in the borough of Spelthorne, in the county of Surrey in England. It extends from the left bank of the River Thames and the south-west of the Greater London boundary and is approximately 13 miles (21 km) from Charing Cross, London. Suburban neighbourhoods make up most of its area, Lower Sunbury, added to which is part of the Metropolitan Green Belt including Kempton Park. The town centre is by the London end of the M3 motorway, elsewhere are three shopping parades and riverside public houses. In tourism Lower Sunbury holds an annual fair and regatta each August.

The retail division of BP UK is at Witan Gate House. BP employs around 15,000 people in the UK.

It has an enhanced oil recovery laboratory. [3]

See also

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BP Canada Energy Group ULC, is a Canadian oil and gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and a subsidiary of BP plc.

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References