La Mède refinery
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The La Mède refinery is a biorefinery that previously operated as a traditional fossil fuel refinery owned by TotalEnergies in Châteauneuf-les Martigues near Marseille, France, and on the Etang de Berre.{{Cite web|last=|title=Total palm oil refinery in Marseille, France|url=https://ejatlas.org/|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Environmental Justice Atlas|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=9 November 1992|title=Gas explosion in the cat cracking and gas plant units of a refinery|work=French Ministry of Environment - DPPR / SEI / BARPI|url=https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/wp-content/files_mf/FD_3969_La_Mede_1992_ang.pdf|last=|first=}} The plant includes about 250 hectares.
The biorefinery has a capacity of 500,000 tones of biofuels (hydrotreated vegetable oil) a year.{{Cite web|date=2019-07-04|title=Total starts up La Mède Biorefinery|url=https://bioenergyinternational.com/biofuels-oils/30697|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Bioenergy International|language=en-US}} The plant conversion, started in 2015, finished in 2019 with EUR 275 million of capital expenditure. In 2021, the plant announced production of aviation biofuel made from cooking oil.{{Cite web|title=Total produces sustainable aviation fuel in France|url=http://tradearabia.com/news/OGN_381110.html|access-date=2021-04-18|website=tradearabia.com}}{{Cite web|title=TOT Starts Making Sustainable Aviation Fuel in France|url=https://www.rigzone.com/news/tot_starts_making_sustainable_aviation_fuel_in_france-13-apr-2021-165144-article/|access-date=2021-04-18|website=www.rigzone.com|language=en}}
A 2018 agreement with the French government capped the amount of palm oil production at the facility at 300 000 tonnes, while requiring at least 50 000 tonnes of French-grown rapeseed oil.
Environmental activists have criticized the plant for its reliance on palm oil, which has a track record of global environmental destruction and human rights violations.{{Cite web|date=2019-10-29|title=Greenpeace blocks Total biorefinery that uses palm oil|url=https://www.france24.com/en/20191029-greenpeace-blocks-total-biorefinery-that-uses-palm-oil|access-date=2021-04-18|website=France 24|language=en}} Local farmers represented by Fédération nationale des syndicats d'exploitants agricoles also expressed concerns about palm oil competing with local oil production.{{Cite news|date=2019-05-30|title=Total to move ahead with using palm oil at biodiesel refinery|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-total-biofuels-lamede-idUSKCN1SZ1V9|access-date=2021-04-18}}{{Cite web|title=Total's biodiesel refinery on-track despite palm oil controversy {{!}} Biofuels International Magazine|url=https://biofuels-news.com/news/totals-biodiesel-refinery-on-track-despite-palm-oil-controversy/|access-date=2021-04-18|website=biofuels-news.com|language=en-US}}
History
The refinery was built in the early 1930s as one of two refineries (the other in Gonfreville){{cite magazine |magazine=The Oil and Gas Journal |volume=32 |issue=4 |date=15 June 1933 |title=Normandy Plant of French Company Incorporates Modern Trends in Design of New Equipment |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_oil-gas-journal_1933-06-15_32_4/page/12/mode/1up}} whose purpose was to refine a new source of Middle Eastern crude oil. The Compagnie Francaise des Petroles held a 23.75% share in the Iraq Petroleum Company, which had struck oil in Kirkuk in 1927 and in 1934 had completed a pipeline to the Mediterranean Sea.
With the Fall of France, Syria and the pipeline terminal at Tripoli were under the control of the Vichy Government, but with Iraq on the side of the Allies, oil deliveries came to a halt. With the Syria–Lebanon campaign in the summer of 1941 the Allies regained control of the entire pipeline system and with the Battle of Marseille at the end of August 1944 gained control of the refinery.
While the refineries on the Atlantic coast were destroyed or severely damaged, the three refineries near Marseille remained intact: La Mede, Etang de Berre and Lavera.{{cite magazine |magazine=The Oil and Gas Journal |volume=47 |issue=25 |date=21 October 1948 |title=France Progressing on Comprehensive Plan to Build Petroleum Industry |page=64 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_oil-gas-journal_1948-10-21_47_25/page/64/mode/1up?q=%22Martigues%22}} The prewar capacity of 900,000 tons per year (18,750bpd) at La Mede was still available in 1945 and had risen to 1,200,000 (25,000bpd) in 1947. France as a whole had a prewar refining capacity of 8,100,000 tons per year (168,750bpd), which fell to 1,800,000tpa (37,500bpd) in 1945 and recovered by 1947 to 6,680,000tpa (140,000bpd).{{cite magazine |magazine=The Oil and Gas Journal |volume=46 |issue=51 |date=22 April 1948 |title=French Refining Industry Back to Prewar Output, Moving Ahead |page=65 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_oil-gas-journal_1948-04-22_46_51/page/n18/mode/1up?q=%22Martigues%22}}
In 1961 the two plants at Gonfreville (150,000bpd) and Martigues (136,000bpd) were the two largest in France (total 914,715bpd crude oil capacity).{{cite magazine |magazine=The Oil and Gas Journal |volume=59 |issue=52 |date=25 December 1961 |title=France Refining |page=144 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_oil-gas-journal_1961-12-25_59_52/page/144/mode/1up?q=%22La%20Mede%22}}
The plant entered operation in 1935 as a crude oil and petrochemical plant.{{Cite web|title=La Mede Biorefinery, Marseille, Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, France|url=https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/la-mede-biorefinery/|access-date=2021-04-18|language=en-US}} The plant stopped production of petroleum in 2016.{{Cite web|date=2015-04-16|title=Total La Mede crude refining to cease: Update 3|url=https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1024140-total-la-mede-crude-refining-to-cease-update-3|access-date=2021-04-18|website=www.argusmedia.com|language=en}}
In 1992 the plant had a gas explosion.