Valero Corpus Christi Refinery — United States

Valero Corpus Christi Refinery is a refinery in United States. Its listed capacity is 290,000 BBL per day. Refineries heat, fractionate and chemically transform crude oil into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks through energy-intensive distillation and cracking — extremely demanding on steam generation and heat recovery. It is operated by Valero Energy Corp. By capacity it ranks #15 among 119 oil refineries in United States. It emits about 3,725,926 t CO₂e a year from Climate TRACE. That is 0.66% of the CO₂e from the 1,910 facilities in United States that have an emissions figure in IndustryAtlas. Its CO₂ per unit of capacity is 49% above the national median for this sector.

Facility data: Climate TRACE v6 (asset-level capacity & CO₂e, CC BY 4.0), id ct-1753281.

In context: how this facility compares

At 290,000 BBL per day, Valero Corpus Christi Refinery is well above the median refinery in United States (89,200 BBL per day). Subsector: oil-and-gas-refining. As refinery, it requires high process heat (typically 200–600°C) for its core industrial operations, supplied by boilers, furnaces or direct combustion. Refineries heat, fractionate and chemically transform crude oil into fuels and petrochemical feedstocks through energy-intensive distillation and cracking — extremely demanding on steam generation and heat recovery.

Capacity & CO₂-intensity comparison computed from Climate TRACE industrial facilities data; sector role based on engineering reference.

What 3,725,926 t CO₂e a year looks like

This facility's estimated annual CO₂e (Climate TRACE, modelled) in everyday equivalents from the US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculator:

Equivalencies: US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies. Emissions: Climate TRACE.

Capacity vs largest oil refineries in United States

Listed capacity (BBL per day), Climate TRACE v6 (asset-level capacity & CO₂e, CC BY 4.0).

Operator

Operated by Valero Energy Corp. All facilities by this operator →

Local climate

Valero Corpus Christi Refinery sits in a humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa), at 27.8°N in the northern hemisphere.

Köppen zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).

Site climate & environmental severity

This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.

In this site’s local climate, a bare 150 °C surface sheds about 1275 W/m² to ambient — roughly 0.98× the loss at a 20 °C reference. Reference-surface calculation at a 150 °C surface from WorldClim climate normals (ASTM C680 / ISO 12241) — an indicative per-climate comparison, not a measurement of this site’s specific equipment. Open method dataset: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20787408 (CC BY 4.0).

Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.

How it compares & nearby sites

The #15 largest of 119 oil refineries in United States by listed capacity (Climate TRACE).

Nearby industrial sites

• VALERO CORPUS CHRISTI REFINERY · Chemical Plant · 401,831 t CO₂
• AIR LIQUIDE - CORPUS CHRISTI SMR · Chemical Plant · 355,697 t CO₂
• Buckeye Partners Corpus Christi Refinery · Refinery · 365,321 t CO₂
• Occidental Chemical/Mexichem, Ingelside, Tex · Petrochemical · 698,227 t CO₂
• Air Products LLC - Corpus Christi · Chemical Plant · 153,773 t CO₂
• Koch Industries Corpus Christi West Refinery · Refinery · 2,420,901 t CO₂

Location

Coordinates 27.81676, -97.4845. View on OpenStreetMap.

Frequently asked questions