Collombey refinery

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Collombey refinery

The refinery de Collombey is a former oil refinery located in Switzerland , which was in operation from 1993 to 2015. The plant was built by the Italian group Eni and was last owned by Tamoil .

The purchase of crude oil carried from the port of Genoa by the pipeline Oléoduc du Rhone up to the canton of Valais . The finished products were delivered by rail and tank truck (road) . The daily loading capacity was approximately 150 railway wagons and 200 tank trucks. The products supplied by the refinery included unleaded petrol 95 and 98, aviation petrol, diesel fuel, extra-light heating oil, heavy fuel oil and liquid gas. In addition, the refinery fed around 22 MW into the regional power grid.

location

The refinery is located southeast of Lake Geneva in Chablais in the municipality of Collombey-Muraz ( canton of Valais ), about 100 kilometers from Geneva . The processing and power generation units are on the left of the Rhone and the loading station is on the right.

Processing and power generation units

The processing and energy generation units are located on an area of ​​80 hectares in the municipality of Collombey , Canton Valais .

Loading station

The loading station is located on a 50 hectare lot in the municipality of Aigle in the canton of Vaud . There are also connections to the A9 motorway and the Simplon railway line . At the loading station there are 8 charging stations for trucks and 3 charging stations for railroad cars. There is also 1 gas charging station integrated in the 8-kilometer-long rail network.

Storage place

The total storage capacity of the refinery and the loading station is 760,000 m 3 for 90 floating and fixed-roof containers, which are connected by a pipeline network to two pumping stations in the refinery and a loading pumping station in the station.

production

Production amounted to approximately 2.7 million tons of petroleum products per year, made from crude oils, which were transported from the port of Genoa to Collombey through a 340 km long pipeline crossing the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Tunnel . The production of the refinery corresponded to about 19 percent of the annual consumption of petroleum products in Switzerland. Around 2.2 million tons are sold from the refinery in Collombey every year. Approx. 14 percent of this was intended for the Swiss market and 10 percent of this for the diesel market alone.

history

The Collombey refinery under construction, 1963

In 1990 the refinery was taken over by Tamoil, a company of the Libyan-controlled Oilinvest group, and according to the company, over 700 million francs were invested to modernize the facilities.

In 2004 a catalytic cracking plant was put into operation. It allows vacuum distillates to be converted into high-quality light products such as gasoline and heating oil (extra light).

At the end of March 2015, the Collombey refinery ceased operations until further notice. Negotiations with possible buyers of the plant did not lead to a purchase agreement until 2018. In May 2019 it was announced that the refinery will be permanently closed and that it will be dismantled from 2020.

environmental Protection

At the beginning of the 21st century, there were technical incidents in the company. The canton of Valais examined the impact on the environment. Between November 12 and 14, 2008, 151,000 liters of petrol flowed from the refinery into the Rhône and polluted the groundwater . The canton of Vaud filed a complaint against Tamoil in this regard. The Vaud and Valais authorities have been criticizing the obsolescence of the protection systems since 2002.

As a safety measure for the environment, a wall was built around the refinery to protect the groundwater. In addition, the individual units were equipped with complex automatic controls. To protect the Rhône, a water treatment plant was built that uses bacteria to remove the pollution from the water. Environmentally harmful exhaust gases were largely separated before they were released into the atmosphere and burned off using a gas flare .

Employee

The refinery had a workforce of over 224 people. The refinery was also a major customer of services and materials in the region, creating additional jobs.

gallery

See also

Web links

Commons : Collombey Refinery  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tagesanzeiger.ch: Tamoil temporarily closes the refinery in Valais
  2. ↑ Grégoire Baur: Le démantèlement de la raffinerie de Collombey se précise. In: Le Temps, July 17, 2018, accessed on August 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ Dismantling of the refinery begins in 2020. In: schweizerbauer.ch . May 15, 2019, accessed May 15, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Cédric Arnold: Refinery TANOIL SA de Collombey. Report on the environmental situation of the refinery. Canton du Valais. Service de la protection de l'environnement. 2005.
  5. ^ Canton of Vaud reports Tamoil because of gasoline leak in refinery. (No longer available online.) Swissinfo , December 11, 2008, formerly the original ; Retrieved September 13, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.swissinfo.ch  
  6. ↑ Qadhafi's oil pollutes the Rhone. Tages-Anzeiger , December 11, 2008, accessed September 13, 2009 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 17 '6.2 "  N , 6 ° 57' 6.5"  E ; CH1903:  562478  /  126076