Shell Haven was a port on the north bank of the Thames Estuary at the eastern end of Thurrock, Essex, England and then an oil refinery. The refinery closed in 1999 and the site was purchased by DP World who received planning consent in May 2007 for the new London Gateway deep water container port at the site. The neighbouring Coryton Refinery remained in operation until 2012.
History
Shell Haven appears on the 1596 edition of Saxton's Map 'Essexiae Comitat' Nova vera ac absaluta descriptio' It was possibly mentioned earlier. Shell Haven was mentioned in Samuel Pepys' Diary on 10 June 1667.
The site, historically also referred to as Shellhaven was originally an inlet on the north bank of the Thames, about a mile to the west of Canvey Island. This was the mouth of Shell Haven Creek, which runs east and south of the village of Fobbing, and originally separated Corringham Marsh from Fobbing Marsh. To the east was Shell Haven House. Sources differ on when Shell Haven first became associated with the oil industry; the first edition Ordnance Survey map of the early 19th century shows Oil Mill Farm a mile or so up Shell Haven Creek. Shell Haven was for over 80 years the site of a large Shell oil refinery, but there seems to be no evidence for the company taking its name from the site.
In the 1850s, a branch line was constructed from the London Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) to a new port immediately to the east of Shell Haven, to be known as Thames Haven (sometimes written Thameshaven). The name of Shell Haven would probably have been eclipsed, but for the failure of Thames Haven to prosper, and the later arrival of the Shell oil company.
In 1895, the ammunition firm Kynochs purchased Borley Farm, to the east of Shell Haven Creek, to build an explosives factory. This opened in 1897, with a small estate called Kynochtown. Kynochs also built the Corringham Light Railway (CLR), with a passenger branch from the works to Corringham and a goods branch to the LT&SR at Thames Haven. The Kynoch works closed in 1919. The site and CLR were taken over by coal merchants Cory Brothers Ltd of Cardiff to build an oil storage depot, with Kynochtown being renamed Coryton. The oil depot eventually became Coryton Refinery (run from 1950 until recently by Mobil and its antecedents), which remains in production, between Shell Haven Creek and Hole Haven to the east.
Shell Oil first arrived in the form of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a sales company formed by Royal Dutch Petroleum and the British company Shell Transport and Trading Company, prior to their merger as Royal Dutch Shell. A licence was obtained in 1912 to store petroleum at Shell Haven, in iron tanks, each containing not more than 4,000 tonnes. The maximum storage allowed for the whole site was 80,000 tonnes. Refinery operations began on a site in 1916 with a distillation plant which produced fuel oil for the Admiralty. In 1919, this unit was converted to manufacture road surfacing bitumen. In 1925, a bench still was erected for the manufacture of lubricating oils; the first high viscosity oils were produced in 1937. Other plants were erected before the outbreak of war, including a blending plant for producing horticultural chemical products.
During World War II the refineries and oil storage tanks at Thames Haven, Shell Haven and Coryton became a sitting target for air raids, notably in September 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
In 1946, a plant producing high grade Paraffin Wax for candles, paper, etc. was commissioned. In 1947, expansion began on a site west of the original refinery.
In 1948, financial sanction was approved by the Board of Shell Petroleum Co Ltd for the construction of a new large crude oil refinery, based primarily on the processing of Kuwait crude.
The facilities were to include: A Crude Distillation Unit, with a design intake of 6,000 tonnes/day of Kuwait Crude. It was given the designation CDU1. A High Vacuum Unit with a design intake of 3,500 tonnes/day of Kuwait Long Residue. Designated HVU for CCF (cat cracker feed). A Thermal Reformer with a design intake of 1,200 tonnes/day Kuwait Naphtha. A Gasoline Doctor Treater Three 17bar Steam Boilers (MP Boilers 3, 5 and 6) and a once through salt cooling water system.
In 1950, the Crude Distillation Unit, the Doctor Treater and MP Boilers 3, 5 and 6 were commissioned.