Oil Refineries - History

History

Its origins date 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 the 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 refinery started in 1938 and was carried out by the M. W. Kellogg Co. with assistance from Solel Boneh, and was completed in 1944. During World War II, the complex supplied refined products to British and American forces operating in the Mediterranean and North African theaters, and was bombed 21 times during the early stage of the war, though the damage it suffered 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 the Ashdod facilities were sold to the Paz Oil Company, while at the same time ORL became a public company and its shares were listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Oil Refineries Ltd.'s vast petrochemical plants have released significant amounts of pollution to the environment around Haifa Bay. However, starting in March 2011, after being connected to the new national natural gas distribution grid, the plants will switch to using natural gas (rather than mostly fuel oil) as their main power source, thus greatly reducing the amount of air pollution emanating from the complex. The switch to natural gas is also expected to save the company US$200 million per year in fuel and other costs.