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1 History

When the Richmond Refinery first opened in 1902 it only had 80 employees, some were engineers, mechanics, technicians, inspectors, and managers. Most of the employees migrated from the South where there was poverty, also the lack of educational facilities for the children, rigid segregation and discrimination, and limited opportunities were all among the reasons that led people to places such as Richmond, CA. In 1905, when Richmond was finally incorporated as a city, the population was 2,150. When 1914 came around, the population grew to 7,500 and the employee number went all the way to 1,615, and as time went on those numbers increased tremendously.

o  1.1 Beginnings

According to historian Gerald White the beginning of the richmond refinery on the west coast was “colossus”. The refinery was built in the city of Richmond, on a peninsula near the San Francisco Bay. It was finally completed in July 1902. At the begginign it was only a complex of red brick buildings, the new refinery could process “10,000 barrels of crude a day and had a tankage capacity of 185,000 barrels in its first year of operation”. Chevron's earliest predecessor, the Pacific Coast Oil Company (PCO), was looking to build a refinery to develop its fuel capacity of processing light as well as heavy crudes from Southern California fields. PCO's main facility. Supervisor William Rheem was the one who found the location for a new refinery and pipeline terminal. The site which he had located was a country road that terminated near a railroad station called East Yards. At Rheem's urging, PCO acquired the property on September 14, 1901. The East Yards station became the became the center of the Pacific Coast refining industry. It also changed its name to Point Richmond.

By summer of 1902 PCO's S.S. George Loomis steamed into San Francisco Bay to deliver its cargo of crude oil to the Richmond wharf. The first steel oil tanker built and operated on the Pacific Coast, the 641-deadweight-ton Loomis would become a major supplier of crude oil for the newly constructed refinery. By July 3, 1902, the refinery came to life as the first oil flowed into the new stills and the fires were fully lit. From the beginning  the Richmond refiner  was a leader in the production of highly refined products and the refinery processed 3,317,000 barrels of crude oil. The Richmond refinery started off with 80 employees, including engineers, mechanics, technicians, inspectors and managers, but this number began to grow at an extremely fast rate and started to have a significant impact on the city of Richmond. By 1907, Standard Oil Co. (California) began to take over most of the operation of the PCO and started to develop Zerolene motor oil. Also by this time the, Richmond Refinery was one of the largest refineries in the world, as crude runs rose to an average of about 25,000 barrels a day.

o  1.2 Growth

One of the most important things which affected the growth of Chevron was the invention of the car. THe number of cars grew at an extremely fast rate from 1914 to 1918. It is estimated that the number of passenger cars in the United States rose from 1.6 million to 5.6 million. It is because of this that the transformation and demand for gasoline, and other petroleum products began to increase. It is because of this demand that the Richmond Refinery saw major growth in this period. Standard Oil Co. (California) increased its product base to help the growing popularity of the automobile and other means of transportation. Because of this increase in demand Richmond Refinery began to hire more people and build more structures on the land. The next major growth happened in 1917 when the United states entered the first World War. It is now because of the war that more fuel dependent vehicles become needed such as trucks, tanks, tankers, trains, and planes. The Richmond refinery also began to produce items that was necessary for the use of dynamite during the war. The next major growth period happened with the beginning with WW2. Even though many of the employees joined the war effort the refinery like in WW1 was busy producing items and products to help the war. It is also at this time that many African Americans from the South began to migrate to Richmond to find jobs at the refinery and on the ship yards.

o  1.3 Modernization

After WW2 the Richmond refinery began to go through a process and modernization and expansion of a facilities. As a result of this modernization they began to produce higher-value, higher-volume gasolines, lubricants, and petroleum chemicals. One of the things that they did was to create 50,000-barrel residuum stripper, which converted heavy residual fuel oil into lighter products and also started to change crude oils to a higher grade. In 1959 the Richmond refinery developed a new way of changing high-octane gasoline into modern high compression automobiles gasolines. In 1965 the refinery opened the world's largest Isomax hydrocracking complex to convert heavy petroleum oils to lighter stocks for gasoline and other higher valued products. This process increased the gasoline output by 40% while reducing production of less valuable heavy fuels. In 1951 the began to manufacture paraxylene, a basic material for making synthetic fibers, becoming the first of its kind to extract this material from petroleum. Also in 1954 they began to manufacture lubricating oil additives, resins and plastic, and plywood adhesives. In 1960 they were the number one source of petroleum chemicals in the United States and also produced such things as "soft" detergents, lubricant additives, plastics and plasticizers.

o  1.4 Recent history

Since 2002 which marked the 100th anniversary of the refinery the company had over 1,300 employees, was the complex on 2,900 acres of land, it had 30 operating plants, two Cogen Plants, five boilers and the ability to move 340,000 barrels a day of raw materials. In 2006, it had a capacity to produce over 225,000 barrels a day. The Richmond Refinery by the mid 2000’s had become one of the major refiners in the United States. The refinery has also done a lot to fix the environment which has been victim to many of the refineries process. They have invested more than $286 million to install major emissions-control equipment, improve its waste-treatment processes, dispose with refinery wastes, produce unleaded gasolines that meet stringent federal and state standards, reduce the amount of energy required to process each barrel of crude, and improve the plant's treatment of its effluent. THey also have done much in trying to fix the natural ecosystems. Even though the Richmond Refinery says that it has been respecting the environment and safe for so many years there have been major problems of fires and leakage.

o  1.5 Chevron Expansion

Chevron has recently decided to create more expansion in 2013. The expansion project was expected to be around 1 billion dollars and would also create hundreds of new jobs. The reason for the expansion was to not only upgrade and fix many problems at the 100 old refinery but also start to produce a much more aray of crude oils. Many people in the city of Richmond saw this expansion as positive because not only would it bring jobs and economic growth to the city but it would also be a solution to many of the health issues which the residents have complained about over the recent years. Interestingly some environmental activist think that the expansion would be problematic because the refiner is already causing pollution and this expansion would only make things worse.

First Attempt: Environmental Impact Report (EIR) In 2009 a judge ruled the company’s environmental report fell short in explaining the changes in crude that would be processed and outlining plans to mitigate greenhouse gases. Chevron’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to the city was not comprehensive enough to disclose that the expansion would enable the refining of heavier and more contaminated oil. [3] According to Global Community Monitor, the expansion in which chevron wants to do could be detrimental.[4]However Chevron makes the argument that “many jobs were lost because of the halt on the expansion project.”