Also known as:
Saraland is a small, simple refinery located on the north side of Mobile, Alabama in the southeast US.
Saraland is owned and operated by Vertex after acquiring the plant in 2022 from Shell.
Saraland originally produced hydrotreated heavy gas oil that was used as a feed stock for olefin production by Shell Chemical in co-located chemicals facilities.
The refinery processes domestic light sweet crude oil (WTI and LLS) that it receives by water.
Transportation fuel products are distributed to southeast markets through a high-capacity truck rack.
Vertex converted the mild hydrocracker to a renewable diesel facility in 2023, while continuing to process crude through the rest of the plant. In 2024 Vertex announced that it was converting the hydrocracker back to fossil refining due to low renewables margins.
Complexity: 5.8
Atmospheric distillation - 96 kbpd
Vacuum distillation - 30 kbpd
Reformer - 22 kbpd - Semiregen
Naphtha hydrotreater - 28 kbpd
Distillate hydrotreater - 18 kbpd
VGO hydrotreater - 30 kbpd (mild hydrocracker). Originally used to produce hydrowax for steam cracker feed. Converted to renewable diesel operation and being converted back to fossil operation (with ability to swing between renewable and fossil)
C4 Isomerization - 1.2 kbpd
C5/C6 Isomerization - 2 kbpd
Land - 720 acres (370 hectares)
Two marine docks
6 mile of pipeline connecting to Vertex's Blakely Island terminals
1975 - Built by Louisiana Land and Exploration
1996 - Acquired by Shell Chemical
2022 - Shell sold the refinery to Vertex for $75M plus value of inventory (~$225M total).
2022 - Signed a renewable diesel offtake agreement (100% volume) with Idemitsu/Apollo
2023 - Converted the hydrocracker to a renewable diesel plant at a project cost of $115M (8 kbpd rising to 14 kbpd by 2024). Original cost estimate of $85M
2024 - Converted the hydrocracker back to fossil diesel production