Sarnia Refinery - Sunoco & Suncor
The Suncor Sarnia Refinery is an 85,000 bpd cracking plant located in the "Chemical Valley" section of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada alongside the St. Clair River. The refinery has been in continuous operation since 1952 and supplies petroleum products to the southern Ontario region including Toronto and its suburbs via the . The refinery has roughly 500 employees and contractors who work onsite.
History
Early beginnings (1940s–1950s)
In 1952, Sun Oil Company, commissioned the Sarnia refinery. The location of the refinery in Sarnia was strategic due to its proximity to both the Alberta oil supply from the creation of the Interprovincial [Pipe Line Company] and major transportation routes along the Great Lakes. The Interprovincial Pipe Line was especially important to bringing Canadian crude to Sarnia. The connection was completed in 1953 and is now part of Enbridge's mainline system.The Suncor and Petro-Canada era (1990s–2010s)
During the period 1992-1995, Sun Oil "Sunoco" of Philadelphia sold its 75% ownership of Suncor Canada to the public. The final sale of 25% in 1995 severed Suncor and Sarnia Refinery from the much larger Sunoco. The Sarnia Refinery still maintains several physical pipeline connections to the former Sunoco Toledo, Ohio plant which is approximately twice the size of Sarnia. Sarnia served as Suncor's lone refinery until the purchase of the in Denver, CO in 2003. In 2009, the merger between PetroCanada and Suncor meant that Sarnia would become part of a much larger refining system with plants in Edmonton and Montreal.A major period of investment was undertaken from 2004-2007 at the site with modernization activities and the construction of several new units. The company disclosed that the total investment was $960 million. Tom Ryley, SVP of Refining said that “Suncor made a substantial investment to strengthen the integration between our oil sands operation in Northern Alberta and our Ontario-based businesses.” At peak, the construction project employed 1,600 workers. Suncor worked 5.8 million man hours without a lost time injury during this project.
Notable features of the refinery
Houdry Cracker
The Sarnia Refinery is home to a large Houdry Cat Cracker developed by Eugene Houdry, one of the only to ever be constructed. Houdry crackers were a precedent technology to Fluid Catalytic Crackers during WWII and served a critical role to the war effort. The first large Houdry unit was completed at Sunoco's Marcus Hook Refinery in Pennsylvania in 1937 and Sunoco was one of the only operators of the technology after the 1940s. The Houdry Unit at Sarnia has been in continuous operation for nearly 70 years and may be the last of its kind in operation.Shared Hydrotreater with Shell
The refinery has a long-term relationship with the nearby Shell Canada Sarnia Refinery to jointly share a hydrotreater. According to Suncor's 2003 annual report the two plants agreed to construct the unit for $300 million with a completion date in 2006:In October 2003, Suncor and Shell Canada Products Inc. entered into a 20-year agreement under which Suncor will build hydrotreating facilities at its Sarnia refinery to process high-sulphur diesel from both Suncor’s and Shell’s Sarnia refineries.
Units
According to the Oil & Gas Journal, Sarnia has the following units in operation:| Unit | In BPCD |
| Total Refinery Nameplate | 85,000 |
| Atmospheric Distillation | 85,000 |
| Vacuum Distillation | 26,730 |
| Houdry Cat Cracking | 16,668 |
| Hydrocracking | 32,078 |
| Naphtha Reforming | 22,957 |
| Naphtha Hydrotreating | 25,788 |
| Jet Hydrotreating | 5,975 |
| ULSD Hydrotreating | 43,588 |
| Other Hydrotreating | 6,743 |
| Alkylation | 5,503 |
| Aromatics Extraction | 13,209 |
| Hydrogen Production in mmscf/d | 41 |
The refinery is complex and has a Nelson Complexity Ratio of 10.8.
Emissions performance
Greenhouse gas emissions
According to filings made with the Government of Canada, the refinery emits roughly 800,000 tons per year of CO2.Note all data below can be found publicly at the .
Greenhouse gas (GHG) information
Facility emissions for 2022
Emissions from accidents and abnormal operation - list
1996 - Oil Tanker Explosion while loading at the refinery. See also video of the tanker fire on this link: .2003 - Vacuum Crude Unit fire.
2019 - Small fire reported and extinguished.
2022 - Oil spill into the Saint Clair River contained.
2025 - in March the refinery spilled crude oil into the Saint Clair River again.
See also the community tracking .