Page 90 - FINAL Phillips 66 50 Year Book

By 1998, heavy investment in the refinery was paying off. Recent
spending included £85 million on a vacuum distillation unit to process
a wider range of feedstock, a £35 million cracked gas plant to recover
and process gas from other refinery units, a £28 million coker expansion
and an £18 million tanker loading berth to improve import and export
capacity.

In 1999, the Humber Refinery celebrated its 30th birthday – a jewel in
Conoco’s crown. Since start up, £750 million had been invested in a
continuous improvement programme, and it was announced that £700
million (the then equivalent of $1.13 billion) more would be invested
into the refinery over the following ten years; the largest ever industrial
investment in the Humberside area.

A third of the money was earmarked for producing cleaner energy,
including a £90 million spend on constructing units to produce ultra-low
sulphur petrol and diesel, ahead of new and rigorous EU specifications:
a £34 million gasoline plant and £56 million diesel plant. The cash also
included the Combined Heat and Power plant.

Ever at the forefront of technological evolution, by 1999 the refinery
had adopted advanced controls; at that time generating an extra $10
million in revenue. Powerful computers and multi-variable controllers
were being used to increase feed rates, stabilise operations and
maximise production of the highest value products; essentially, the goal
of advanced controls was to earn money by pushing and holding units
against their most limiting constraints.