Country UK Owner(s) BP No. of employees 2600 Commissioned 1919 | Operator BP Decommissioned 1998 Capacity 200,000 | |
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Ews 66014 works into llandarcy oil refinery 03 07 1999
The Llandarcy Oil Refinery was the UK's first oil refinery in 1922, owned by BP. Previously to this refinery, the only oil refined in the UK came from Scottish shale.
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History
It was known as the National Oil Refinery and BP Llandarcy. BP would later have its Kent Refinery and Grangemouth Refinery.
Construction
Construction began in February 1919, with a new railway line; it cost £3m. The refinery was formally opened on 29 June 1922 by Stanley Baldwin, President of the Board of Trade.
In 1961 a new oil terminal was built by BP at Angle Bay in Pembrokeshire.
Production
When opened it was making around 150,000 gallons of petrol a day. In 1960 it was refining 8 million tons of crude oil a year. It was the third biggest oil refinery in the UK after Fawley Refinery and Lindsey Oil Refinery.
Closure
It closed in 1998. The site was demolished in October 2009.
Structure
The site of the refinery was off the Llandarcy Interchange of the present-day M4, near the B4290 and Skewen. The area is known as Coedffranc. To the south, off the A483, is Crymlyn Burrows.
The site covered 650 acres.