World's Largest Oil Refinery Rises From Desert (4).View of Aden Crude Unit No.1 from Crude Unit No.2.Rising from the open desert here is the world's largest new refinery under construction. Costing about 45 million pounds sterling, the refinery will require 22,500 kilowatts of electric power (enough to supply a town of 80,000 people), to run it, plus four million gallons of water an hour (more than that used by Glasgow, Scotland, and 600,000 pounds of steam an hour sufficient to drive Britain's Royal Scot train 1,200 miles. February 22, 1954. (Photo by United Press Photo).