A $450 million expansion has United Refining Co., primed to flow
more barrels of oil a day and increase its payroll.

Part of the expansion project for the Warren-based refinery
includes putting in a coker, an operating unit that “allows us to
run high sulfur, heavy crude as opposed to sweet crude,” according
to Lawrence Loughlin, vice president of human resources at the
company.

This will increase the refinery’s capacity from 65,000 to 70,000
barrels a day. This will also create 70 to 80 jobs at the refinery
after the project is done. There will be about 500 construction
jobs while building is under way. The project, which is also
expected to reduce pollution, should be complete in 2008.

Loughlin said there has already been site preparation.

The reason for the expansion is twofold – to meet mandated
environmental standards for sulfur admissions and to run crude at a
lower cost.

“The crude we can run cost less than the sweet crude costs,”
Loughlin said. “Goes to the bottom line of the company.”

While the project has been in the works for a couple of years,
they’ve made progress recently with getting zoning changes approved
by the city. This includes changing zoning from residential to
commercial, Loughlin said.

Six buildings, including ones used for locker rooms, fire safety
and warehouse, will be torn down, too, to make room for the
coker.

“We are building new buildings to replace ones we have to tear
down to make room for the coker,” Loughlin said.