The Montreal East Refinery (French: Raffinerie de Montréal-Est) was an oil refinery located in Montreal East and formerly Shell Canada's largest refinery. In October 2010, refinery operations permanently ceased and the facility was subsequently converted into a storage terminal.[1]
The defunct refinery, the second owned by Shell in Canada, opened on 24 March 1933. It began with three units; the distillation unit, a topping unit, and cracking catalytic unit. In 1947 it was expanded with the building of the alkylation and catalytic cracking refining units, and the refining capacity of was increased. From 1947 to 1960, the isomerisation, catalytic reforming, chemicals plants were built and the refining capacity was further increased. During 2002 to 2008, desulphuration units were built and the refining capacity was upgraded to its highest level 161,000 barrels per day (25,600 m3/d).
On January 7, 2010 Shell Canada announced closing the refinery and converting it to a fuel terminal.[2] On June 4, 2010, following the unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer to take over the plant, Shell Canada announced its plans to move forward to downgrade the refinery into a terminal.[3] The conversion commenced in September 2010, with it permanently ceasing operations as a refinery in October 2010. Approximately 800 jobs were lost.[4]
The refinery consisted of two refining units with capacities of 103,000 barrels per day (16,400 m3/d) and 58,000 barrels per day (9,200 m3/d). It had alkylation, hydro-cracking, reforming catalytic, cracking catalytic, thermal catalytic, isomerisation, and desulphiration units. Its processing capacities included:
After its conversion to a storage terminal, the facility receives gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels for distribution.[2]