Refining and treating of North Slope crude in a fuels refinery

Near Ferndale, Washington, Atlantic Richfield Company operates the Cherry Point Refinery, a facility designed from grassroots for operation on North Slope crude. Although the refinery was conceived and constructed between 1969 and 1971, because of the delays in completion of the Alaskan pipeline it started up on Canadian crudes, and, until the arrival of North Slope in August, 1977, processed a mix of foreign and domestic crudes. Since that time, with the exception of a small amount of light, wellhead condensate, the refinery has operated exclusively on North Slope crude. On the average, since the pipeline came on stream, the Cherry Point Refinery has processed came on stream, the Cherry Point Refinery has processed about 5-9% of total pipeline production. This paper summarizes the assay-related design considerations and some of the ensuing operational experiences with the design crude, including the tail gas unit, coke calciner, desalting, exchanger, and heater fouling, corrosion problems, and crude and product properties.