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Lavéra refinery | Source: Petroineos Corporate website

The Lavéra Refinery is an integrated crude oil refining complex located at Lavéra, a coastal district of Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, approximately 50 km (30 miles) west of Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. It is the largest refinery in southern France and one of the largest refining sites in Southern Europe with a crude oil processing 210,000 bbl/day (~10 million t/yr). The refinery is operated by Petroineos Manufacturing France SAS, a 50/50 joint venture between INEOS and PetroChina International London (PCIL).

History

The refinery was commissioned in 1933 by the Société Générale des Huiles de Pétrole (SGHP) with an initial crude processing capacity of 350,000 tonnes/year. It subsequently passed to BP, under whose ownership it was expanded into a major refining complex over several decades. In 2005, BP transferred the assets to its spin-off subsidiary Innovene, which was then acquired that same year by INEOS. The Petroineos joint venture was established in 2011–2012, at which point PetroChina entered the ownership structure and Petroineos Manufacturing France SAS became the operating entity.

Product Slate

The refinery processes a wide range of crude types and produces a full slate of products:

• Fuels: gasoline, gasoil/diesel, domestic fuel oil, jet fuel/kerosene, heavy fuel oils, bitumens, LPG (propane, butane)
• Petrochemical feedstocks: naphtha (supplied directly to Naphtachimie steam cracker), propylene, hydrogen
• Other: bunker fuels, industrial gases (O₂, N₂)

The total output of the integrated Lavéra site (refinery + chemicals) exceeds 14 million tonnes per annum.

Integration with Petrochemical Complex

The refinery is fully integrated with the adjacent Lavéra petrochemical cluster. Light naphtha fractions from crude distillation are piped directly to the Naphtachimie steam cracker (750,000 t/yr ethylene capacity), which in turn feeds the Appryl polypropylene unit and Gexaro benzene extraction plant — all owned by INEOS. This tight refinery-to-chemicals integration is one of the defining characteristics of the Lavéra platform, enabling maximum valorisation of crude oil fractions and shared utilities infrastruce