Geograph - photograph every grid square

Oil refinery near North Killingholme (2)

A thrilling and spectacular display of pipes, chimneys, and flares. Not only is it more exciting than anything modern art can dream up, it is also functional. Although, when I look at such complex and intricate structures as this, I find it hard to believe that they have been built without a thought to impressing observers. If just one of those shiny, convoluted pipes were removed, would the whole refinery grind to a halt?
The Lindsey refinery is operated by Total, and is currently Britain's third largest, with a processing capacity of more than 200,000 barrels per day. It came on-stream in 1968, and can process more than forty different types of crude oil. North Sea oil accounts for around 90 per cent of the incoming crude oil.
A little while before taking this photo, I had a small insight into the paranoia currently pervading the country's security services regarding terrorism in general, and photography in particular. A minute after pulling the car into a layby by the perimeter fence (so I was trespassing) and taking a photo through it, a mobile security van materialised. The officer asked me politely what I was doing, asked me for ID (I demurred) and asked me to delete any photos I'd taken (naughty of her), before telling me she had noted my number plate. A week or so later I was stopped by a police officer in Manchester who asked me similar questions, and on my return home I found a note from the Met's Counter Terrorism branch politely asking me to give them a ring. They were very apologetic about their communication breakdown when I pointed out that I had already been asked the same questions by GMP. The whole business was absurd because by taking a step backwards from the fence I would have been on a public road and Texaco, as the officer admitted, would not have been able to stop me from taking photos, and if I had not been in a car they would not have been able to track me at all.