Page 42 - FINAL Phillips 66 50 Year Book

John Bleasedale, a shift maintenance supervisor, was a Petty Officer
Radio Electrician in the Navy. He said: “I completed a nine-year
engagement and I thought that at 31 it was time to start thinking about
setting up a home for the family and looking for a job in civilian life. I
wanted to go into the instrument side of industry because electronics
are involved and my services training I knew would be of help. Here I
run a shift team which helps to keep the refinery running. Sometimes
I’ve probably got 20 to 30 men of different trades under me and they
need supervision – so the supervisory experience I got in the Navy has
helped me tremendously here at Conoco.”

Refinery manager George Peters, as insightful as ever, explained
why Conoco was attractive to people leaving the armed forces. “Ex-
servicemen, having been around and exposed to varying situations,
are very adaptable when joining our industry – which requires a great
deal of flexibility from its personnel,” he said. “The services by their very
nature employ a wide variety of basic skills which can be adapted to
needs peculiar to the oil industry.”

In 1973, a £300,000 sulphur recovery unit was brought into operation.
Described as an ‘inherent undesirable’, the burning of sulphur in
densely populated areas was causing concern, because of the amount
of sulphur dioxide emitted during the process.

The unit was designed to reclaim all of the sulphur removed in the refining
process, negating the necessity for flaring. As a double precaution, a
350ft tall stack was built so that any residual oxide discharged from the
sulphur plant was emitted so high into the atmosphere that it did not
pose a pollution problem.

Above: Sulphur recovery unit.