Phillips Pertroleum's 75th Anniversary by Wes Phillips


Pantex Gasoline Plant

     On February 15, 1926, some three weeks before the townsite of Borger, Texas was formed, the Natural Gasoline Department of Phillips Petroleum Company approved construction of the Pantex Gasoline Plant. The Plant was placed onstream in June 1926. The original Plant consisted of two absorption type distillation units, nine 165 H.P. Clark recompressor units, three boilers producing 70 psig steam and a cooling tower. Approximately 5.1 MMCF/day of gas was processed.

     The central gasoline treating plant was approved on November 1, 1926. This included erecting 200- 10’ x 36’ steel underground storage tanks. A 30-car steel loading rack was built in July 1926.

     Canadian Gasoline Plant was started on March 3, 1927. Rock Creek Plant and Sanford Plants were started on May 5, 1928, and Gray Plant on May 29, 1929. The gasoline from these plants was transported by pipeline to the “Central Treater” for treating and was loaded for sales.

     The first three fractionators were constructed in June, July and August, 1929, and were placed in operation in August 1929.

     As other outlying gasoline plants were constructed, additional fractionators and treating facilities were added at Borger.

     In the early 1930’s the Pantex Central Treater became known as “Borger Fractionators” and by the late 1940’s had become the world’s largest “Natural Gas Liquids Process Center”.

Refinery – Early Years

     The Alamo Refinery was built in 1926, and consisted of two fractionators. No. 1 Still was put into operation on December 2, 1926. It was essentially the complete refinery since there was no other processing other than caustic washing. The capacity of the No. 1 Still was around 2,500 B/D. During the 1940’s, it was used as a utility still doing odd jobs of separation to produce special products. Its last year of use was 1953. In 1958, the original oil unit was moved to Johnson Park in Borger as a museum piece.

     On October 25, 1927, an agreement between Phillips Petroleum Company and the Alamo Refining Company was signed for the sale of the refinery to Phillips. The sale price was $17,818.89. Phillips purchased the Alamo Refinery November 1, 1927 which employed only 12 men. Shortly after the purchase, the Alamo Refinery was renamed to the Phillips Refinery since it was actually located in the community of Phillips, Texas. In 1962, the name was changed to the Borger Refinery. The new name was more appropriate because the nearby city of Borger was the center of Phillips’ huge concentration of facilities in the Texas Panhandle. In 1929, the refinery capacity was increased to15,000 bpd.

     Over the next ten years, 21 Stills had been completed and in 1941, Phillips Golf Course was officially opened. On December 25, 1942 Unit 22 HF Alkylation was built and on June 21, 1944 Cyclovesion Units 23 and 24 were built to convert gas oil into gasoline. In 1928 Unit 28 Crude Still was built and in 1951 the First Borger Refinery catalytic cracking unit (Unit 29) was built as was Unit 30, the Sulfur Dioxide Extraction Unit.

     In 1955 things began to slow down at the Borger Refinery. By 1956 units 4, 7, 9, 16, 17, and 18 were shut down. This was, however, a time of new growth as well as an Atmospheric Flasher Unit, First Stage Vacuum Unit, a Visbreaking Unit, a Third Stage Vacuum Unit and a complex Vapor Recovery system were brought on line.

     The late 50’s and early 60’s showed more changes with units going off line and others including the Unit 40 Heavy Oil Cracker brought on line.

     In the year 2000, the Phillips refinery underwent a “debottlenecking” project which increased the facility’s capacity to process crude oil by 20 percent. The increased capacity came on line in 2001.

Consolidation of Plants

     The Pantex, Borger Fractionators and Rice Plants were consolidated into the Refining Department in February 1963. By January 1971 there were 657 employees working at the combined plants. Older units continued to be shut down and new units built. In 1979 and 1980 an Area-wide power outage shut the entire refinery down and an explosion in January, 1980 left the refinery-side shut down for six months.      In May, 1992 the Philtex and Rhyton sections merged with the Refinery and NGL Center into the Borger Complex. In November 2002, Phillips Petroleum Company merged with Conoco to form Conoco Phillips.



Various Units at Phillips Petroleum

Atmospheric Flasher Unit
Casing-head gasoline
Catalytic Cracking Unit
Crude Still
Cyclovesion Unit
First Stage Vacuum Unit
Heavy Oil Cracker
HF Alkylation
Stills
Sulfur Dioxide Extraction Unit
Third Stage Vacuum Unit
Vapor Recovery System
Visbreaking Unit