So we have to be the best at what we do. To understand a refinery, you must first simplify the complex. Our Catlettsburg refinery is all three of these in one and is among the most complex in the world. For example, the cost of a fluidized catalytic cracker per barrel of capacity is six times greater than a crude distillation unit. Therefore, its unit complexity factor is six.
All crude oil goes through the crude distillation unit during processing.
But only parts or fractions of the crude oil go through the various downstream processing units. The overall complexity of a refinery is determined by adding the values obtained when the complexity factor for each process unit is multiplied by the capacity of that unit stated as a percentage of the crude distillation unit's capacity. In terms of crude oil capacity, some small refineries are quite complex, while other larger refineries are relatively simple. When compared to other domestic refiners and refineries, Ashland Petroleum and its three refineries rank among the most complex and among those with the highest EDCs. A modern refinery is a large factory.