Based on selected activities undertaken in the refinery and petrochemical complex with the projected capacity of 17 Mg crude oil annually with own energy system, the present study shows possible ways of bringing production installations into line with binding legal rules and European Union guidelines on environmental protection. Having adopted an integrated approach, we correlated some environmental protection undertakings with energy-related efficiency improvements affecting the whole plant. Our aim was to try to answer the following question - what consequences follow from the limitation of industrial emissions.