bp Wants to Reposition Its Refinery in Gelsenkirchen for the Future

March 08, 2024

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(bp) bp is planning a major transformation at the Gelsenkirchen site in order to prepare the refinery site for the energy transition and make it future-proof.

High system complexity, structurally high costs and declining demand for conventional fuels are driving the need for change.

Opportunities arise from increasing demand for lower-emission fuels and, in particular, more sustainable aviation fuels.

This results in prospects for the refinery location, which are to be improved through profound changes in the system and process configuration.

Existing plants are to be partially decommissioned and existing ones - subject to the appropriate approvals - converted or repurposed in order to be able to process biogenic input materials in addition to conventional ones in the future.

The planned transformation could reduce the site's operational CO₂ emissions by up to half a million tons per year from 2026.

Gelsenkirchen, March 6, 2024 – With the strategy for the German market, bp also wants to advance its transformation into an integrated energy company. The refinery in Gelsenkirchen is an important component of this project. By the end of the decade, bp plans to gradually convert the site so that it can follow the path of the energy transition and exploit its potential.

Our refinery location in Gelsenkirchen is currently not competitive. We are too complex and – not only because of this – burdened with structural costs that are too high. In order to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that arise for our location from the energy transition, we have to change today. We want to give the Gelsenkirchen location a perspective and greater potential for its contributions to the energy transition.Arno Appel, head of the refinery in Gelsenkirchen.

Refinery: Perspectives through change and adaptation

In order to prepare the refineries for the future, it is necessary to massively reduce the complexity of the site and to shut down parts of the plant for which utilization is expected to decline in the future - with petrochemical production remaining the core area.

Therefore, as a first step , five systems in the Horst and Scholven plants are scheduled to be decommissioned from 2025. This could lead to a planned and controlled reduction in total production capacity – currently around twelve million tonnes of crude oil per year – to around eight million tonnes at the site.

With these measures, the site could also reduce its Scope 1 emissions by up to half a million tons of CO2 per year.

bp also plans to enable the production of lower-emission fuels using co-processing in the hydrocracker plant at the Gelsenkirchen-Scholven site, subject to appropriate approvals, in order to produce, among other things, more sustainable aviation fuels (so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuels - SAF). 1

Another perspective for future steps towards the production of more sustainable products is the possibility of establishing , together with a partner, a circular economy network at the refinery for its petrochemical plants. Only recently did the Gelsenkirchen City Council create the basic prerequisites for this by adapting the development plan accordingly.

The planned orientation of the refinery towards the future will also have an impact on the organization of work on site. Arno Appel says: “The tasks on site will change as part of our transformation. We are determined to take as many colleagues as possible with us on this journey. But it is also true that there will be fewer jobs overall in the refinery of the future. In order to make this change as fair and socially acceptable as possible, we want to start negotiations with the employee representatives as quickly as possible.”

About the Gelsenkirchen location:

bp operates the two plants in Horst and Scholven in Gelsenkirchen as an integrated refinery and petrochemical site with around 2,000 employees and 160 trainees. The processing capacity is approximately twelve million tons of crude oil per year. In addition to gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil, this produces more than 50 different products, primarily for the chemical industry. In addition to its great importance for the domestic fuel and energy supply, the Gelsenkirchen site also plays an important role in the North Rhine-Westphalia chemical network.

About bp:

bps' ambition is to rethink energy for people and our planet. The company aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner and help the world get there. The company has developed a clear strategy for this. For more information, visit www.bp.com/en .