Fluor completed the refinery for Caltex (now Chevron) in 1965. The refinery used enriched Arabian crude to produce regular and premium gasoline, diesel and fuel oils, low-pressure gas, asphalt and kerosene. We carried out a total responsibility contract for the 30,000 barrels-per-day grassroots refinery.

The workforce was accustomed to building in South Africa, since it included a number of people who had worked on one or two of the petrochemical projects constructed at Sasolburg.

The crude distillation column for the refinery was purchased in England, but it was 120 feet long, with a skirt diameter of 10 feet and weight of 42 tons, too large to be shipped on British highways from Wallsend on Tyne to the port in Middlesborough. Therefore, the column was sealed, sprayed with lanolin and floated and towed by barge (and two radar-equipped tugboats) down the River Tyne. At the port, the column was transferred to a freighter for shipment to the job site. It was the first occasion where a column or vessel manufactured for the Fluor London office had been floated.