oil refinery
Enable an AI agent to recognise an oil refinery, assess its processing capability and operating constraints, and determine which interventions require further evidence or authorisation.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise an oil refinery, assess its processing capability and operating constraints, and determine which interventions require further evidence or authorisation.
An oil refinery is a process plant that separates crude oil and similar hydrocarbon feeds into boiling-range fractions and then converts and treats those fractions so they meet specification transportation fuels, heating oils, asphalts, lubricants, and petrochemical feedstocks.
It can be Identify the refinery and map its process boundary, shared systems and external interfaces.; Screen a proposed feedstock or product slate against documented processing capability and constraints.; Assess throughput limitations using unit availability, utilities, storage and transfer capacity.; Compare current operating evidence with approved envelopes and flag conditions requiring specialist review.; Trace the potential effects of a unit outage or utility loss across dependent refinery systems.; Prepare an evidence-backed change or maintenance review and identify required authorisations..
Distinguishing features
Establish whether the facility transforms petroleum feedstocks through an integrated refining process, rather than merely storing, transferring or blending finished products.
Identify whether separation, treatment and any conversion units operate as a coordinated refinery system rather than as an isolated processing unit.
Distinguish refinery processing from field production or stabilisation by examining incoming feedstocks, processing objectives and outgoing product streams.
For a combined refinery and petrochemical site, identify the refinery process boundary and shared interfaces rather than classifying the entire complex from its name.
Scope
+ Refinery boundary, constituent process units and integration with adjacent facilities
+ Accepted feedstocks, processing routes and achievable product specifications
+ Capacity, throughput, material balances and operational bottlenecks
+ Utilities, storage and transfer systems supporting refinery operation
+ Equipment condition, process safety barriers and operating restrictions
+ Site emissions, effluents, residues and applicable permit constraints
- Upstream oil fields, wells and crude production operations
- External pipelines, marine terminals and distribution networks beyond defined interfaces
- Standalone petrochemical manufacturing outside the refinery boundary
- Individual equipment design and maintenance procedures owned by equipment models
- Corporate ownership, financing and commodity trading strategies
- Detailed emergency response procedures and executable process-control logic
Characteristics
- Facility classification and lifecycle
- Proposed, under construction, commissioned, operating, idled, partially retired, decommissioned; classification evidence recorded separately Separates what the facility is designed to do from what it can currently do.
- Refining configuration
- Named separation, conversion, treatment and blending units, with their integration and availability Determines which processing routes are physically available.
- Feedstock acceptance envelope
- Site-specific ranges for properties such as density or API gravity, sulfur mass fraction, acidity in mg KOH/g, and contaminant concentrations Supports assessment of feed compatibility without assuming that all crude oils are interchangeable.
- Processing capacity and throughput
- Mass/time or volume/time, identifying the unit, feed basis, reference conditions, period and whether design, permitted, demonstrated or actual Prevents incompatible capacity figures from being treated as equivalent.
- Product capability
- Product streams linked to attainable specifications, required processing routes and verification evidence Distinguishes nominal product names from demonstrated specification compliance.
- Utility and hydrogen dependence
- Process units linked to electricity, steam, fuel, water, cooling and hydrogen supplies, including limits and alternatives Reveals dependencies that can constrain throughput or continued operation.
- Operating mode
- Normal operation, reduced rate, startup, shutdown, turnaround, emergency shutdown or unknown, recorded by unit and time Different modes require different evidence before changes can be considered.
- Integrity and barrier status
- Site-defined equipment and safeguard status, including impairments, restrictions and evidence date Connects observed condition to operating restrictions and required review.
- Environmental performance
- Release rates, concentrations and quantities with pollutant, medium, monitoring location, averaging period and applicable limit Makes environmental observations comparable with the constraints that govern them.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Refinery identity and boundary Establishes what constitutes this refinery and where its responsibilities and physical interfaces end.
A refinery may share infrastructure with terminals and petrochemical plants, so its name or address alone cannot establish its scope.
Facility recognition
Records evidence that the facility is a refinery and identifies its lifecycle state.
Refining function
Record the feedstocks, transformations and outputs that justify recognising the facility as an oil refinery.
- Which petroleum-processing functions establish this facility as a refinery rather than a terminal, blending plant or upstream treatment facility? definition
- Which current operator records, permits or process documents support that classification and lifecycle state? provenance
Physical and shared boundaries
Separates refinery assets from neighbouring facilities while preserving shared-system dependencies.
Refinery interface map
Record included process areas and the transfer or responsibility boundaries for shared infrastructure.
- Which tank farms, utility plants, jetties, wastewater systems and petrochemical units fall inside the refinery boundary? boundary
- Where do material custody, operating control and maintenance responsibility change at each shared interface? boundary
Feedstock-to-product pathways Connects feed acceptance, installed processing routes and product capability.
Refinery capability depends on feed properties and unit integration, not merely a list of products.
Feedstock compatibility
Captures the evidence and limits governing accepted petroleum feeds.
Accepted feed envelope
Record feed property ranges, blending dependencies and restrictions relevant to the installed refinery.
- Which measured feed properties and contaminants constrain acceptance, blending or processing rate at this refinery? measurement
- What assay evidence and technical approval are required before introducing a feed outside the demonstrated envelope? action
Processing and product capability
Relates installed units and intermediate streams to attainable finished products.
Demonstrated processing routes
Record available separation, conversion, treatment and blending routes with their product-quality dependencies.
- Which installed and available units connect each accepted feed to intermediate and finished product streams? definition
- Which product specifications have been demonstrated for each relevant feed and operating configuration, and by what evidence? provenance
Throughput and system dependencies Records effective processing limits and the supporting systems that determine them.
A refinery's achievable throughput can be constrained by downstream units, hydrogen, utilities or inventories even when crude processing capacity is available.
Capacity and material balance
Makes capacity and flow observations comparable and identifies limiting process stages.
Effective throughput envelope
Record capacities, actual flows and bottlenecks for a specified feed, product slate and configuration.
- What are the design, permitted and demonstrated capacities and actual throughput, with consistent units, feed basis and observation periods? measurement
- Which process stages constrain the current feed and product slate, and how well do measured inputs, outputs and inventory changes reconcile? measurement
Utilities and inventory support
Captures the supporting capacities required to sustain processing and manage interruptions.
Support-system constraints
Record dependence on hydrogen, energy, water, cooling, storage and transfer systems.
- What available supply, demand and reserve margins exist for hydrogen, electricity, steam, fuel, cooling and process water? measurement
- Which tank segregation, usable inventory and receipt or dispatch constraints could force rate reduction or shutdown? boundary
Operating condition and process safety Connects refinery operating modes, equipment condition and safeguards to permitted interventions.
Interconnected hydrocarbon processes require evidence of both equipment fitness and functioning safeguards before operational changes can be judged.
Unit mode and integrity
Records current unit states and condition-related operating restrictions.
Current operability
Record unit modes, integrity evidence and restrictions affecting continued processing.
- Which units are running, starting up, shutting down, isolated or in turnaround, and when was each state verified? measurement
- Which inspection findings, corrosion or fouling assessments, leaks or overdue integrity tasks impose operating restrictions? provenance
Safeguards and change authority
Records the status of refinery protection systems and the authority needed for changes.
Barrier-dependent actions
Link proposed changes to relevant safeguards, approved limits and review requirements.
- What evidence establishes the availability or impairment of relevant isolation, relief, flare, shutdown, detection and fire-protection systems? provenance
- Which operating-envelope checks, management-of-change reviews and authorised roles are required for a proposed feed, rate, configuration or equipment change? action
Environmental releases and residuals Records refinery releases, residual streams and the constraints governing their management.
Refinery operation depends on the ability to manage emissions, wastewater and process residuals within site-specific limits.
Air releases and flaring
Connects combustion, process emissions, fugitive releases and flare events to monitoring and limits.
Air-release status
Record air-release sources, measured or estimated quantities and applicable operating constraints.
- Which stacks, process vents, fugitive sources and flare events contribute releases, and how are their quantities measured or estimated? measurement
- Which permit conditions, averaging periods and event-reporting requirements apply to each relevant release source? boundary
Water and residual management
Tracks wastewater treatment and the handling capacity for refinery residual streams.
Residual-handling envelope
Record treatment, storage and onward-handling constraints for wastewater and site-relevant residuals.
- What treatment and storage margins exist for wastewater, oily sludge, spent catalysts and other residuals generated by the current configuration? measurement
- Which discharge, reuse, recovery or off-site transfer routes are authorised, and what operating response is required if a route becomes unavailable? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Topping plant (atmospheric distillation only, little or no conversion)
- Hydroskimming refinery (crude distillation plus reforming and hydrotreating)
- Cracking / conversion refinery (fluid catalytic cracking or hydrocracking of vacuum gas oil)
- Deep-conversion refinery (coking or residual hydrocracking of vacuum residue)
- Lube-oil and specialty-products refinery
- Asphalt / bitumen-oriented refinery
- Petrochemical-integrated refinery (olefins, aromatics, or mixed-feed crackers on the same site)
- Condensate splitter or light-crude plant (narrow feed slate, limited conversion)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- NAICS - 324110 - US Census / BLS class Petroleum Refineries; used in EIA, EPA TRI, and other US facility statistics.
- ISIC Rev.4 - 1920 - Manufacture of refined petroleum products (United Nations Statistics Division).
- NACE Rev.2 - 19.20 - EU statistical counterpart of ISIC 1920.
- SIC - 2911 - US Standard Industrial Classification Petroleum refining, still used in some legacy permit and TRI mappings.
- EIA plant identifier - plant-specific numeric ID in the Refinery Capacity Report - Identifies individual US operable refineries and their atmospheric crude distillation capacity.
- EPA FRS / TRI facility ID - facility-specific (e.g. TRI ID or FRS Registry ID) - US environmental facility keys; not a global naming scheme.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119 Process Safety Management (US Department of Labor)
- EPA 40 CFR 68 Risk Management Program (US EPA)
- EPA 40 CFR 60 Subparts J and Ja New Source Performance Standards for petroleum refineries (US EPA)
- EPA 40 CFR 63 Subpart CC (Refinery MACT 1) and Subpart UUU (catalytic cracking, reforming, sulfur recovery) (US EPA)
- EU Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU, applied through the JRC BREF for refining of mineral oil and gas (European Commission)
- Seveso III Directive 2012/18/EU on major-accident hazards (European Union); UK COMAH Regulations 2015 (HSE)
- API Standard 650 welded tanks for oil storage; API 510/570/653 in-service inspection codes (American Petroleum Institute)
- NFPA 30 Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code (NFPA); ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section VIII for process vessels (ASME)
- IEC 61511 / ISA 61511 functional safety for the process industry sector (IEC / ISA)
- Product specs that drive unit configuration: ASTM D4814 gasoline and D975 diesel (ASTM); EN 228 and EN 590 (CEN); ISO 8217 marine fuels and MARPOL Annex VI sulfur limits (ISO / IMO)
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Coastal or pipeline-connected plants receive crude by tanker, pipeline, barge, or rail, then ship gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, LPG, asphalt, and petrochemical naphtha by the same modes.
- Integrated oil companies run refineries against their own crude and marketing systems; merchant refiners buy crude and sell products on the open market.
- Capacity and configuration are managed around crude slate (light sweet vs heavy sour), seasonal gasoline/diesel splits, and mandated sulfur and bio-blend rules.
- Major maintenance is done in multi-week turnarounds; between turnarounds the plant is a continuously staffed hazardous-process site with tank farms, flares, sulfur plants, and hydrogen systems.
- National fuel security and military jet-fuel supply often treat large refineries as critical infrastructure.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Atmospheric crude distillation capacity - about 20,000-400,000 for most commercial plants; world extremes roughly 5,000-1,240,000 - barrels per calendar day
- Nelson Complexity Index - about 2 (topping) to 5-7 (hydroskimming/cracking) to 10-15 (deep conversion); US average near 11 - dimensionless index
- Operable utilization - about 80-95 in tight markets; can fall below 70 in surplus or outage years - percent of operable CDU capacity
- Crude API gravity of typical slates - about 20-45 (heavy sour to light sweet); condensate splitters higher - degrees API
- Finished-gasoline sulfur (regulated markets) - 10 annual average in US Tier 3 and Euro 5/6-type specs - mg/kg (ppm by mass)
- Direct CO2 intensity of processing - roughly 0.15-0.40 depending on complexity, hydrogen source, and residue conversion - tonnes CO2 per tonne of crude processed
- Process plus cooling water withdrawal (highly site-specific) - on the order of 0.5-2.5 with recycle; once-through coastal plants can be much higher - cubic metres water per cubic metre crude
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Vapor-cloud explosion or flash fire from a loss of containment of light hydrocarbons (historic examples include tank-farm overfill and isomerization-unit blowdown).
- Toxic release of hydrogen sulfide from crude units, amine treating, or sulfur recovery; hydrogen fluoride from HF alkylation.
- Hydrocracker or hydrotreater temperature runaway, reactor leak, or emergency depressuring fire.
- FCC regenerator afterburn, slide-valve failure, or power-recovery expander incidents.
- Delayed-coker drum unheading, blowout, or coke-cutting injuries.
- High-temperature hydrogen attack, sulfidic corrosion, and naphthenic-acid corrosion of piping and vessels.
- Tank or pipeline spill creating LNAPL and benzene groundwater plumes; wastewater oil and phenol discharges.
- Flaring and SO2/NOx/particulate exceedances during upsets; air-toxics (benzene, 1,3-butadiene) from equipment leaks and storage.
- Boiler, furnace, or heater tube rupture; loss of steam or electric power forcing emergency shutdown.
- Major-accident escalation under Seveso/COMAH-type inventories of flammable and toxic materials.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- United States: high gasoline yield, high average complexity, PADD-based logistics; California plants also meet CARB gasoline rules that other US regions do not.
- Europe: historically more diesel-oriented product slate, shrinking capacity, IED/Seveso permitting.
- China: large state majors plus independent "teapot" refiners with different crude access and product-quality enforcement.
- Middle East and India: new export mega-refineries, often petrochemical-integrated; Reliance Jamnagar is the usual upper bound on CDU capacity.
- Russia and some older plants elsewhere: simpler, fuel-oil-heavy configurations still being upgraded toward residue conversion.
- Africa: few large operable refineries relative to product demand; several countries remain net importers of fuels despite crude production.
- Naming: official US statistics say "petroleum refinery"; everyday English "oil refinery"; condensate splitters in the Gulf and East Asia are often debated as whether they count as full refineries.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Crude oil terminal / tank farm - Receives, stores, and ships crude or products but has no crude distillation or conversion units.
- Fuel blending terminal or depot - Blends finished or near-finished components to spec; no atmospheric crude distillation column.
- Petrochemical complex (steam cracker, aromatics plant) - Converts naphtha, LPG, or ethane into chemicals rather than a fuels slate; often co-located with, but not the same plant as, a refinery.
- Natural gas processing plant - Treats raw natural gas and recovers NGLs; feed is gas, not crude oil.
- Oil-sands upgrader - Converts bitumen to synthetic crude oil; may lack a full gasoline/diesel/jet product slate unless it is also configured as a fuels refinery.
- Lubricant blending plant - Blends base oils and additives; does not refine crude (base-oil manufacture inside a lube refinery is the exception).
- Biorefinery or co-processing unit - Primary feed is biomass, lipids, or waste oils rather than crude; a conventional oil refinery may co-process bio-feeds without becoming one.
- Oil-fired power station - Combusts residual fuel or crude for electricity; does not separate and convert crude into a product slate.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of oil refinery this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Refinery Capacity Report - US plant-level crude distillation capacity, downstream unit capacities, and how refiners are counted and identified in official statistics.
- Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Refining of Mineral Oil and Gas - Process-unit inventory, typical environmental performance, and EU regulatory framing of a mineral-oil refinery.
- Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals, 29 CFR 1910.119 - US process-safety duties that apply to refinery units handling listed highly hazardous chemicals.
- National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from Petroleum Refineries, 40 CFR 63 Subpart CC - US air-toxics rule that defines petroleum-refinery affected sources and emission points.
- Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics - Standard process-engineering account of distillation, conversion, and treating configurations, complexity, and product slates.
- International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Revision 4, class 1920 - Statistical classification of manufacture of refined petroleum products, distinct from crude extraction and from petrochemicals.
What the second pass must settle
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover oil refineries, requiring this registry entry to link to it instead of receiving a separate model?
- Should the registry's oil refinery category include standalone condensate splitters, used-oil re-refineries or facilities converted entirely to renewable feedstocks?
- Which authoritative site records establish the refinery boundary, especially for shared terminals, utilities and petrochemical units?
- Which feed envelopes, product capabilities and sustainable capacities are demonstrated rather than inferred from installed equipment or nameplate figures?
- Which jurisdiction-specific permits, approved operating limits and decision authorities must be resolved before the model can support site-specific action judgments?