Oiled Chemical Plant

 Sometimes you can find quite pleasant things inside an unsightly, beginning to fall apart shop. This time I'm going to tell you about a petrochemical plant.

 

Another plant is closing down and getting ready to be demolished. One spring afternoon my friend and I went to explore what a petrochemical plant had left for us.

The first building we came across had once served as a raw materials warehouse. It was used to store oil coming to the plant by railway to be processed after. It's in bad shape, but that kind of decay gives the place its own atmosphere.

Ten large cisterns, each with pipes for filling and taking in the liquids.

One cistern has been savagely ripped out and the settled soil has taken its place.

This is how it all looks from above.

We go even higher up. You can see a regulation point.

The rest of the building is not really interesting.

 We got out and started wandering around the area. Finding a weak spot in the jam of one of the halls, we threw ourselves in there and walked the floor from start to finish, checking for sensors.

This shop is mothballed. Many of the units have signs on them with the dates of the next maintenance. One reactor will be waiting as far back as 2027. Something tells me that it won't make it to the next inspection.

Many of the units were operated under a vacuum.

Scales to control the product.

A huge gas wrench.

Press-filters for petroleum products.

Valves that regulate the water supply for firefighting.

Speaking of fires. There are bunches of smoke detectors hanging in every room. At the door is a box with a constantly flashing light.

On each floor hangs a service telephone.

There are a lot of emergency exits from the building, which provides quick evacuation in case of emergency.

A lot of pipes, valves, couplings, and boilers. It is a steampunk aficionado's paradise!

There was a control room on the first floor, where workers could control the power in the nearby area.

First and second floors.

We go back to the main staircase.

There are evacuation plans that fluoresce in the dark.

On the second floor is the control room.

A gas mask for each employee.

Exploring the rest.

Reactor with the lid open.

It's time to go outside.

Before we go out, we look at the finished product storage tanks.

Walking back along the wet asphalt, we left behind us rainbow trails of petroleum film on the puddles.

Until we meet again!