BP refinery Hamburg-Finkenwerder
Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '2 " N , 9 ° 53' 48" E
The Hamburg-Finkenwerder refinery was an oil refinery owned by Deutsche BP in what is now the Waltershof district of Hamburg . The refinery was founded as the Eurotank refinery in 1934. After the Second World War, BP bought the refinery and operated it until it was closed in 1985.
history
founding
The refinery began operating as the Eurotank refinery in 1939. The owners were Crusader Petroleum Industries Ltd , which in turn was owned by Davis & Co. was. Eurotank was founded in 1931 and had been pursuing the idea of building a refinery in Germany since 1934. An area at the new oil port was leased from the city for thirty years in order to build a modern refinery there. In addition to a distillation unit, it had a cracking plant with 1000 t / d, which was supplied by Winkler-Koch from Kansas. A second unit, the Forster-Wheeler, comprised an atmospheric distillation with 500 t / d capacity. The refinery was primarily intended to process imported crude oils from Mexico.
When it was commissioned, it was not only one of the most modern refineries in Germany, but also the third largest after Rhenia (Shell) and Ebano (Esso).
Entry of BP into the Eurotank refinery
The international BP, at that time still operating under the name of AIOC , wanted to expand its oil business in Germany at the beginning of 1947 and was looking for a stake in a refinery, as it had with the DEA in Wilhelmsburg before 1945. However, since all capacities of the Wilhelmsburg refinery were already being used and there were hardly any opportunities for expansion, the purchase of the Eurotank refinery was considered. The third option of building your own refinery was discarded due to the lack of construction capacities and building materials.
The Eurotank refinery was in dire need of repair due to the enormous destruction caused by the bombing of the Hamburg port area in World War II , but it was repairable and modern in its equipment. The purchase price was $ 1,800,000 and the purchase was completed in December 1948.
In March 1949, production resumed at 270,000 tons per year. As early as 1950, with the restart of the Winkler-Koch unit, an annual production of 600,000 t was achieved. On November 9, 1951, Eurotank AG was finally sold by the parent company to its German subsidiary OLEX , with which Eurotank AG ceased to exist.
The industrialist Erwin Bockelmann , who is counted among the founders of the refinery, is closely associated with the refinery . With the takeover of Eurotank by OLEX, he later became General Director of Deutsche BP.
Operation until decommissioning
The capacity of the refinery in 1978 was 5.1 million t. In addition, the outdated cracking plants were no longer in operation, which is why the refinery belonged to the hydroskimming or heating oil refineries.
The refinery was closed in 1985 due to overcapacity in the refining sector. Just shortly before the shutdown, DM 100 million was invested here and in the Hünxe refinery, which was also shut down at the same time . Like many other refineries, it did not survive the adjustment process.
See also
literature
- The BP refinery Hamburg-Finkenwerder, Hamburg 1955, 24S.
Web links
- History of the German BP and the Hamburg-Finkenwerder refinery
- A refinery chimney was blown up in 1994
Individual evidence
- ^ Article of the time about the refinery 1950
- ^ Factor oil: The mineral oil industry in Germany 1859–1974, p. 163 Development of the Eurotank refinery
- ^ Factor oil: The mineral oil industry in Germany 1859–1974 edited by Rainer Karlsch, Raymond G. Stokes, p. 265
- ^ Factor oil: The mineral oil industry in Germany 1859–1974 edited by Rainer Karlsch, Raymond G. Stokes, p. 265.
- ↑ Article on the refinery in 1950
- ↑ Figures of the Mineralölverband, comparison 2013-1978 (peak of the refinery capacity)
- ↑ On decommissioning