A new training centre at a ConocoPhillips refinery in Illinois will help to circumvent localised side effects of the economic downturn, the site's manager Herman Seedorf has insisted.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Seedorf said that the training and development centre will undertake a substantial ramp-up in the number of enrolees admitted to the courses, which will provide craft orientation training for diverse operations in the oil and gas industry.

"That is particularly good news in that it will help offset the current economic downturn," he said.

The training centre is being built as part of a large-scale reconstruction of the ConocoPhillips refinery which will allow it to increase production to 400,000 barrels a day by 2015, up from 306,000 presently.

ConocoPhillips started work on the refinery in 1917 and finished it the year after. It is built on 2,200 acre site and has been operational since it was first opened.

Global Education and Training event for Oil and Gas: Refining and Petrochemicals