The refinery was first planned in July 1964, and in August 1964 it was expected to cost £15 million, and to be operational by late 1966.

It should have been built by November 1968, and the delay in completion was blamed on bad weather in the summer of 1968, and the 1968/9 winter.

In September 1967 there were gales across the country and a man was killed on the site when an engineering shed fell on him.

The £330,000 18-mile underground pipeline from Tetney was made by O'Connor and Davies, part of British Steel Constructions.

The Humber Refinery has strong community outreach with recent investments of $500,000 in 2009 to the local school Oasis Academy Immingham to encourage engineering and promote STEM.

In 2014 a donation of £240,000 was given to build an Enterprise Suite at Killingholme School helping students to learn employability skills.

A student at Killingholme School won and it was called Mayflower Wood, reinforcing the local areas links with the Pilgrim Fathers.

At the time of its opening Britain was using around 83,000 tons of petroleum coke a year, most of which was imported, and used in aluminium smelting.

Production facilities include an alkylation plant, rotary kilns for petroleum coke manufacturing.

ConocoPhillips was investigated and subsequently fined £895,000 and ordered to pay £218,854 costs by the Health and Safety Executive for failing to effectively monitor the degradation of the refineries' pipework.

The company pleaded guilty to these charges in court and has since implemented a Risk Based Inspection programme.