Crude oil extracted from the Middle East, Asia, Russia, and other oil-producing regions is transported on large crude carriers and arrive at our oil wharf after a 20-45 day journey across the seas. Once vessels pull into the crude oil wharf, the oil travels through pipelines to the oil tanks.

Very large crude carriers (VLCC) measure more than 330m long which is 1.5 times the height of 63 Building, one of Korea’s tallest skyscrapers. These vessels carry approximately 2 million barrels of oil and are equipped with double hulls as a safety measure against spills.

Oil travels through pipelines to storage tanks. Until the oil is transported to purification and refinery facilities, moisture that could not be fully filtered out at the extraction site is removed in the tanks. In addition, the seawater used to make crude carriers safer for travel is sunk and eliminated.

There are currently some 20 large crude oil tanks capable of holding 12.26 million barrels of oil at the Yeosu Complex. The largest of these is 22m tall and 86m in diameter, large enough to hold 800,000 barrels, or the size of two large sports stadiums.

The oil refinery process yields gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and other products widely used as fuel.

Crude oil that reaches GS Caltex after a long journey from oil-producing countries is heated to over 360℃. The crude distillation units use the difference in boiling points to separate the lighter substances that evaporate and the heavier substances that sink to the bottom. Then the oil undergoes multiple redistillation and upgrading processes which produce LPG, gasoline, kerosene, and other value-added petroleum products.

The petrochemical production process refers to procedures that use petroleum, natural gas, etc. as raw materials to manufacture synthetic fiber, synthetic resins, and other products with high processing criteria, turning them into economical and easy-to-handle products.

The process is used to produce aromatics, which serve as an important basic material in petrochemical products. If oil refining is the process of producing most forms of fuel for transportation and heating, then petrochemical production is the process of manufacturing the materials used to make the necessities of life.

When the petroleum residue from the crude distillation unit is heated to over 350℃, it will undergo thermal cracking rather than separate from the difference in boiling points.

To minimize thermal cracking and effectively separate the substances via difference in boiling temperatures, the vacuum distillation unit distills the petroleum residue under near-vacuum pressure lower the barometric pressure.

In the residual fluid catalytic cracking unit, minute particles of atmospheric residue like Bunker C oil and VGO(vacuum gas oil) from the vacuum distillation unit are brought into contact with fluidized catalyst to produce light crude oil products.

The process is used in the production of products like propane, propylene, butane, gasoline, and diesel.

The hydro desulfurization process uses hydrogen to remove sulfur, nitrogen, metallic compounds, and other impurities from various oil products.

The sulfur recovery unit minimizes the sulfur compounds emitted by the vacuum residue hydro cracker (VRHCR) by collecting 99.9% of the sulfur in acid fumes produced during the process.

The cracking process works by bringing vacuum gas oil from the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) into contact with hydrogen in high temperature/high pressure reactor filled with catalyst. The process is used to produce LPG, naphtha, kerosene, and diesel.

In the follow-up process, unconverted oil from the main process is used as raw material in the production of base oil for lubricants.

Preexisting upgrading facilities use bunker C oil to produce gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. By contrast, the vacuum residue hydro cracker uses what might be called the scraps, or residue, from the oil refining process. These include extra heavy oils like asphalt which are used to produce high value light crude oil such as kerosene and diesel.

This cracking process involves bringing minute particles of atmospheric residue like bunker C oil and vacuum gas oil (VGO) from the hydro cracker or vacuum residue hydro cracker into contact with fluidized catalyst to produce light crude oil products.

The process is used to manufacture propane, propylene, butane, gasoline, diesel, and more.

The plant produces base oil using unconverted oil (UCO) that was not converted into light crude oil products in the hydrocracking units.

The base oil is blended with additives to manufacture a variety of lubricant products.

Once products are made at their various processing units, they are stored in product tanks. Yeosu Complex currently has 325 product tanks that hold a total of 42.77 million barrels of product. Assuming that Koreans consume approximately 2.20 million barrels of petroleum a day, there are enough tanks to contain enough petroleum to last the whole country 19 days.

Product wharfs were built to facilitate the transportation of petroleum and petrochemical products via cargo vessels. GS Caltex currently has three product wharfs from which the company exports gasoline, kerosene, bunker c oil, and other petroleum and petrochemical products

Yeosu Complex reuses wastewater generated by distillation units in crude oil desalting facilities as part of the effort to increase wastewater recycling. Wastewater treatment facilities are equipped with advanced features that reduce pollutants in the final wastewater to prevent emission of pollutants at the source. Moreover, GS Caltex is proactively involved in environmental preservation efforts. The company’s operating standards for contaminated water discharge is 50% of the legal requirement.

Power Plant
Yeosu Complex has a cogeneration plant with 100,000kW capacity and additional means to produce 20,000kW using steam. This means some 40% of the total electricity usage is generated on site.

Hydrogen
GS Caltex produces 99.99% pure hydrogen which is supplied to the vacuum residue hydro cracker to be used as raw material for LNG, LPG, light straight run naphtha, and more.

Steam
Approximately 1,600 tons of steam is produced on an hourly basis, enough to heat some 600,000 apartment homes.

GS Caltex takes proactive measures in preparation for the remote chance of fire. Plants 1 and 2 are each outfitted with the best firefighting equipment within Yeosu Complex, including fire trucks and pumps.