BP announced today all of the major new units associated with the Whiting modernization project have been successfully brought on stream. The start-up of the new 102,000 barrel per day coker in mid-November marked the last major milestone of the multi-year, multi-billion dollar modernization project at the facility in Northwest Indiana.
As BP's largest U.S. refinery, the 413,000 barrel per day (bpd) Whiting facility provides the Midwest and other parts of the U.S. with enough fuel every day to run 430,000 cars, 22,000 commercial trucks, 2,000 commercial jet liners, 10,000 tractors and fill 350,000 propane tanks.
A coker is a refinery processing unit that converts residual oil from the crude oil distillation process and converts it into lighter naphtha, light and heavy gas oils for use in gasoline and diesel production and petroleum coke which can be used in power generation and other industrial applications.
BP has recently completed a number of major investments in its other U.S. refineries, including a clean-diesel upgrading project at its 234,000 bpd day Cherry Point, Washington refinery; and the addition of a continuous catalytic reformer to the 160,000 bpd Toledo, Ohio, refinery (a 50:50 joint venture with partner Husky Energy Inc.).
Over the past five years, BP has invested more than $55 billion in the U.S. – more than any other energy company. BP is the nation's second-largest producer of oil and gas and provides enough energy annually to light nearly the entire country for a year. Directly employing more than 20,000 people in all 50 states, BP supports more than 260,000 jobs in total through all of its business activities.
This press release contains certain forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements regarding the future prospects for and expected capabilities of the Whiting Refinery, including in respect of the amount of expected incremental operating cash flow per year to be delivered by the Whiting Refinery in the future and expectations regarding increases in the volume of sour crude processing through the first quarter of 2014 and in the future. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may differ from those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors including the timing and receipt of governmental and regulatory approvals; future levels of industry product supply; demand and pricing; the timing and nature of maintenance outages; operational problems; economic and financial conditions generally or in various countries and regions; political stability and economic growth in relevant areas of the world; changes in laws and governmental regulations; regulatory or legal actions; the development and effective use and maintenance of new technology; the effectiveness and security of our digital infrastructure; the actions of competitors, trading partners, creditors, rating agencies and others; natural disasters and adverse weather conditions; changes in public expectations and other changes to business conditions; wars and acts of terrorism, cyber-attacks or sabotage; and other factors discussed under "Principal risks and uncertainties" in our Stock Exchange Announcement for the period ended 30 June 2013 and under "Risk factors" in our Annual Report and Form 20-F 2012 as filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.