Occidental refinery Canvey Island operate, and that the 1973 URL refinery planning permission should be allowed to stand. However, by this time the oil crises of 1973 and 1980 had affected the viability of the refinery and URL undertook not further work on the site. Shell Haven refinery Coryton refinery Kent refinery 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
Dee Estuary channel which it cut through the base of the Wirral Peninsula. The estuary is a major wildlife area and one of the most important estuaries in Britain, amongst the most important in Europe for its populations of waders and wildfowl. The Environment Agency is the Conservation Authority, and the estuary is protected or listed under several schemes: Large parts of the area are within the RSPB's Dee Estuary Nature Reserve. The estuary supports some important natural fisheries, including salmon and trout on their way to and from the freshwater river, as well as sea-fisheries and shell-fisheries, especially cockles. From earliest