Occidental refinery Canvey Island Occidental refinery Canvey Island The Occidental oil refinery was on Canvey Island, Essex, England. Located in the Thames Estuary, it was a partly-built, non-operational, six million tonne/year oil refinery planned and constructed by Occidental Refineries Limited in 1970–5 and demolished in 1996–7. It was also known as the Occidental Thames refinery. In 1970 Occidental Refineries Limited, a subsidiary of the American Occidental Petroleum Corporation, applied to build an oil refinery on a 323 acre (130 ha) marshland site (51.5250°N 0.5333°E) on Canvey Island south of Furtherwick Road for the production of heavy fuel oils. Planning permission was refused by the
Canvey Island location of land areas in Ptolemy's ancient work have led modern researchers to question the correlation between Ptolemy's island and contemporary Canvey. MacBean and Johnson, 18th century historians, contend "Counus Island" would have existed much further out to sea (or even likely to be the Isle of Sheppey), so any similarity between the names is mere coincidence. Without any suitable island matching Ptolemy's Counus Island, 20th century historians White and Yearsley posit the documented island to have been lost or reduced to an insignificant sandbank by subsidence and the constant effects of the sea. The settlement and agricultural development of