The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1921-06-24
BILLINGS MEN TO
BUILD REFINERY
CONSTRUCTION WORK HAS COM
MENCED; REFINERY TO BE
COMPLETED AUG. Is
First Unit Will Have Capacity OF
1000 Barrels Per Day: to Treat
Oils From Cat Creek. soap Creek.
Usage, DEVILS Basin and other
Montana Fields.

Construction work on the refining
plant of the Montana Refining COM
pany at Billings is progressing rapid
ly and will, in all probability, be IN
operation by August Is. Irainioaos
of oil cars coming in and going OUT
OF Billings will be daily scenes. Inc
company will receive its production
from Cat Creek, Soap Creek, Usage.
Devils Basin, Hailstone basin ana
other fields now being developed
Contracts have been signed with
some of the producers.
The refinery site occupies 40 acres
and is located south of the Northern
Pacific tracks, just north OF the ola
power plant, on the banks OF the lel-
lowstone. The Economy Retineries,
Inc, which controls the northwest
rights of the Gillons refinery process
ses, has the contract and the Wo'h IS
to be supervised by F. j. Ncehe. re
finery engineer.
The first unit of the plant VIII
have a capacity of 1000 barrels OF
crude oil daily. The company has
several contracts with producers OPP
Grating in various fields ana as the
oil fields of the state are developed
additional units to the plant VIII be
constructed.
Aid in Developing
Montana crude oil is now being
shipped to the Wyoming retineries
and the general complaint OF Oil men
in this state is that refinery facilities
have been lacking The location OF
the refinery here. the first to be OPP
Grated in Montana, means that 1t Will
be a great aid to oil operators and
will materially assist in developing
the industry and help place It on a
sounder basis.
]. Bland Catlett, Rudolph Molt
lockwood Brown. and p. G. Mcken-
ma, refinery engineer. spent several
weeks making a survey and lnvesti'
eating the methods and plants locat-
ed in Wyoming. Time was spent In
inspecting the plants at GreybuI
Lowell, Cowley and at Thermopolis
At the latter city, the Alliance refin
cry is using the Gillons system, which
is to be adopted for the Billings plant
The process permits of refining a
the same operation. high and low
grades of oil. and is especially adapt
ed for handling even the very loves
grades of crude.
One of the features is that there !:
absolutely no loss whatsoever in de
hydration, and is simple to operate
and can be done with an accuracy fa1
beyond that of the old methods.
Commenting on the process, ROCK
wood Brown, one of the directors
says:
The Gillons process of refining
crude petroleum is what is known a:
a tower still continuous process. l
was developed after years OF expert
menting by G.. H. Gillons. vel
known oil chemist and refiner o
Los Angeles. 1t was perfected to en-
able the arbitrary and refractory oil
of California to be refined at
profit. It has been in successful op
Grafton by some of the larger rein
cries in California since 1911. an
has proven to be entirely successful
in every way, enabling the refinerie
to make commercial success o
crude oils that would otherwise no
have been profitable to handle.
"The directors have looked int
the merits of the process and decide
on installing it in the Billings plan
It will handle any kind Of oil tina
may be found in the Montana fields