page_title: BAZAN Group
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: BAZAN Group / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The two cooling towers of the BAZAN oil refinery in Haifa, Israel, after the collapse of the eastern cooling tower
context_page_description: BAZAN Group, is an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It operates the largest oil refinery in the country. ORL has a total oil refining capacity of approximately 9.8 million tons of crude oil per year. ORL provides a variety of products used in industrial operations, agriculture and transportation. ORL is Israel's largest integrated refining and petrochemical facility. The company also provides storage and transportation services for oil fuel products, as well as electricity and steam to industrial customers in the region.
context_section_description: The company's beginnings date back to the British Mandate for Palestine when Consolidated Refineries Limited (CRL), a joint venture of Shell and the Anglo-American Oil Company (now Esso), started constructing a sprawling refinery complex which sat at the end of the British-built Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline which stretched from the oil fields near Kirkuk in then British-controlled Iraq.
  Construction of the first refinery unit started in 1938 and was carried out by the M. W. Kellogg Co. with assistance from Solel Boneh, with an annual capacity of two million tons of crude oil. Construction was completed in 1944, increasing the annual yield to four million tons of crude oil.
  During World War II, the complex supplied refined products to British and American forces operating in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre, and was bombed many times during the early stage of the war, by Italy.  Damage to the refineries was quickly repaired.
  Due to concerns about the Arab League Boycott, the British Government sold CRL to the State of Israel in 1958 which then changed its name to Oil Refineries Ltd.
  Since then the complex has undergone significant expansion and upgrades. In the past, ORL also owned the Ashdod Oil Refinery in southern Israel and therefore as a company, it held a monopoly over oil refining in the country. This changed in 2006, when Israel's Government Companies Authority, headed by Eyal Gabbai started privatization processes.
  On August 1, 2006, the Ashdod facilities were sold to the Paz Oil Company for 3.5 billion ILS. In February 2007, 44% of the shares were sold to institutional investors. Following this, 46% were sold to the Ofer-Federman group at 3.30 ILS per share, with the remaining shares sold in an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2007. There were more than 5,500 requests to buy shares, an unprecedented number.
  Since 2008 the company's historic cooling towers have not been in use. One of the towers was converted into a visitor's center, which is open to the public for free, multi-sensory tours. 
  In 2009 the Bazan Group and Olefins companies merged and in 2010 Haifa Basic Oils was fully purchased by Bazan. In 2012 Bazan commissioned UOP's Unicracking strategies in its plants for production of liquid petroleum gas, naphtha, and kerosene.
  More than 70% of ORL's products are distributed locally (for private and public purposes) and the rest is exported. The company is a direct employer of 1,500 workers and an additional 2,000 contractors; the majority of employees are residents of Haifa and the northern region of Israel.
  On June 12, 2020, the eastern cooling tower unexpectedly collapsed.
caption: Haifa oil refinery after the collapse of the eastern cooling tower
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