Page 14 - FINAL Phillips 66 50 Year Book

Making the investment was a big step for Conoco, and a huge indicator
of the faith the company had in the UK. In August 1966, the construction
contract was signed and the first phase began two months later: site
preparation, building tank foundations, and creating drainage roads and
dykes. A brick farmhouse became the temporary construction office,
and thousands of men were employed during the entire construction
period.

The refinery was innovative from the off. A contract was signed with
Power-Gas Corporation, a subsidiary of Sheffield company Davy-
Ashmore, to carry out the work. This involved:
• 75 miles of steel tubing.
• Six coke silos.
• 2,500 tons of structural steel.
• 26,000 cubic yards of concrete.
Coke drums arriving at Immingham Dock, 1967
• Seven miles of paved roads.
• More than 1,100 pieces of major equipment.

The tallest stack was to be about 400 ft high; an engineering achievement
in anyone’s book. It was an exciting time. When construction began,
cattle would still graze among the newly-laid foundations of the soon-to-
be-built storage tanks.

Construction, though, was anything but smooth. At the peak of the
project, there were almost 4,500 men on site, but work was disrupted.
There were strikes almost every day - and even bomb threats. By 1968,
with the project running a year late, the original contractor was replaced
and work completed by labour recruited locally.

Reformer reactors, 1968.