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Lemont Refinery

The refinery in Lemont, Illinois is owned by the Citgo Corporation, which was originally founded in 1910 under the name Cities Service Company. Early in 1931, the company became the first to run a complete pipeline from Amarillo, Texas to Chicago, Illinois. The finished pipe was more than 1,000 miles long, and gave Cities Service Company a cheap method of transporting their gasoline products. It was around this time that an oil refinery was established in the town of Lemont. The plant now has a production capability of 160,000 barrels of crude oil each day.

In 2001 the Lemont plant was shut down temporarily following a fire. The blaze was massive and did intensive damage to the plant. A crude oil processing unit was completely destroyed by the flames, which caused the refinery to halt a large portion of their production. It took more than six weeks for Citgo to finish the necessary repairs and bring the plant back up to full operating capacity. One result of this fire was a rise in gas prices in the midwestern area. Over a very short time, the price of fuel shot up by $.22 per gallon.

Prior to the fire, Citgo had put the Lemont refinery up for sale. A deal was nearly completed with Suncor in 1999, but in the end it never happened. Following the blaze, Citgo was still considering a sale for the plant, but to date there have been no serious buyers.

Citgo created the "Clean Stack" initiative in 2007 to provide a cleaner and more environmentally friendly method of producing their fuels. This was to be accomplished through 2 major processing units that greatly reduced harmful emissions such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Not only would this clean burning smoke stack provide a safer method of processing fuels, it also created new jobs in the area, contract with vendors and helped stir the local economy. The Clean Stack is just one step in the process Citgo is undergoing to create a safer and healthier environment. They also have plans for a clean burning sulfur stack and diesel unit. This equipment is expected to be completed by 2010 at a cost of nearly $500 million.

Another important mission that had to be accomplished at the Lemont refinery in order to provide a safe environment was the removal of all products found within the plant that contained asbestos. While asbestos was a major ingredient in many industrial items for several years, it was eventually found to be a highly toxic substance. Microscopic asbestos fibers can be inhaled by people without them even realizing it, and then cause massive respiratory damage and lead to diseases such as mesothelioma, a life threatening form of cancer. Employees of the Lemont plant who were on staff at any time while asbestos was on the premises should be checked out by their doctor at their earliest convenience.

Last modified: December 09 2009.