Refineries outside North America and the Soviet sphere are classified according to their location in Resource Orientated, Intermediate and Market Orientated plants. The development of these three types of refineries during the last twenty years is described. The factors which determine the economics of refinery location are enumerated: size of plant, yield pattern of refineries confronted by pattern of demand within the effective radius of the refinery, comparative transport cost for crude and finished products and political considerations. Each of these factors influences the refinery planiier in a certain direction and his final decision is the result of weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each solution. The interplay of all these, partly contradictory, factors is analyzed and certain conclusions are drawn in respect of future trends.
Les raffineries, en dehors de l'Amérique du Nord et de la zone d'influence des Soviets, sont classées suivant leur position géographique en: usines liées à la production, usines intermédiaires et usines liées aux débouchés. Les auteurs décrivent le développement de ces trois types de raffineries pendant les deux dernières décades. Ils énumèrent les facteurs économiques dkterminant l'emplacement d'une raffinerie: dimensions de l'usine; rapport du rendement de la raffinerie en divers produits à la vente de ceux-ci dans une région d'écoulement rentable; prix de transport comparés des produits bruts et des produits fabriqués et considérations politiques. Chacun des ces facteurs influence l'ingénieur qui établit le plan de la raffinerie, dans une certaine direction, et sa décision finale est le rbsultat de l'évaluation de avantages et désavantages de chaque solution. Les auleurs analysent l'interaction de ces facteurs en partie contradictoires et en tirent des conclusionr pour les perspectives futures.
The size of oil refineries is determined by their location and vice versa, and both features depend on technical, political and economic considerations. In this paper we intend to analyse some aspects of the interrelation of size and location and the degree to which technical and political elements contribute towards the choice on economic grounds of one refinery location or another.
The catalogue of motives shows that this is a highly complex process which cannot be effectively described on an abstract level only; we therefore intend to exemplify some of its underlying elements by reviewing the events leading towards the Set-up as we now know it in Europe. Our aim is to show the forces which influence a planner of refineries towards a bigger, or smaller, size refinery; and to analyse the attractions which lie in locating refineries at any one of the several points possible in t
