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Grangemouth, Scotland, UK

The Grangemouth refinery and petrochemicals facility is the largest INEOS production centre. It is a deeply integrated site exploiting synergies between the refinery and the petrochemical plants. Located 40 kilometres west of Edinburgh on a 1700-acre site, the petrochemicals facility manufactures over two million tonnes of chemical products per annum and the refinery has an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes. The site is strategically placed to make use of crude oil and natural gas liquids from the North Sea and transform them into petrol, fuel products and a range of olefins and polymer products.

At the heart of the Grangemouth petrochemical site are two ethylene crackers, which produce the feed materials used by the other chemical plants. Between them, the two units have an ethylene production capacity of one million tonnes per year. The naphtha ethylene cracker can crack both gas and light distillate feedstocks, whereas the newer unit is a gas cracker using mainly ethane and propane as its raw materials. Grangemouth's ability to crack both liquid and gas feedstocks has significant commercial advantages.

The Grangemouth refinery processes around 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil, producing more than nine million litres of clean fuels every day. The refinery’s oil feedstock is mainly supplied by the neighbouring BP-operated Kinneil oil and gas processing plant, but also via pipeline from the Finnart Ocean Terminal located 90 kilometres west of Grangemouth.

A portfolio of products

Petrochemicals: The crackers’ products, mainly ethylene and propylene, are short-chain molecules containing reactive double bonds. Plants downstream of the crackers either separate these chemicals or use their reactivity to produce further products. The resulting portfolio of products from the facility includes ethylene, propylene, ethanol, butadiene, linear low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene and polypropylene.

In turn, these products are used to produce plastic bottles and film for packaging, pipes, textiles, pharmaceuticals, home insulation, fuel additives, adhesives, paints and synthetic rubber for automotive tyres.

Products are transported to customers around the UK and continental Europe by ship from Grangemouth docks, and by road and rail. Pipelines also deliver products to nearby customers and to ports and factories across the UK.

Refinery: On the fuel side, Grangemouth is home to Scotland’s only crude oil refinery.  It supplies most of the Scottish demand for refined products such as petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, heating oil and fuel oil. Products are distributed from the site’s own road tanker and rail terminals as well as through coasters supplying other Scottish distribution terminals.