BP in $3-billion refinery project

London - BP has announced plans to invest $3 billion to reconfigure a US refinery to enable it to process Canadian heavy crude oil. The facility in Whiting, Indiana, currently produces about 4.5 billion gallons of automotive fuels a year.

Scheduled for completion in 2011, the project is intended to raise the refinery’s production of gasoline and diesel by about 15%. The plans also include increasing capacity for coking, hydrogen production, hydrotreating and sulfur recovery at the site.

The investment “increases the diversity and security of oil supplies that can be refined into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products in demand by consumers in the midwestern US,” said Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc., in a 20 Sept announcement.

BP is now proceeding with detailed engineering, permitting and procurement to progress this project to construction by the end of next year, said Mike Hoffman, BP's group vice president for refining. The company, he added, is progressing agreements with providers for heavy oil production, pipeline access, engineering, procurement and construction.