MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste is preparing to execute a major turnaround at its Porvoo refinery starting in early April, 2021, after thorough planning work, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Neste secures the safe and undisrupted operations of the Porvoo refinery in Finland with major turnarounds, executed approximately every five years. The Porvoo refinery major turnaround was originally planned for the spring 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the turnaround execution in planned scope was not possible and only the most critical maintenance works were completed in spring 2020.
Thus, the company plans to start shutting down process units at its Porvoo refinery in stages on Monday, 5 April 2021. The duration of the turnaround is approximately 12 weeks. After the maintenance work, the refinery is expected to be operating normally by the end of June.
In the major turnaround, the refinery is subject to regulatory inspections, maintenance works and selected asset improvement initiatives that are required for the refinery's operations. The total investments of the Porvoo refinery major turnaround are estimated to be around EUR 330 million.
“Major turnaround is a significant investment to secure safety, availability and competitiveness of the Porvoo refinery for the next operating cycle. During the turnaround, we will execute several investment projects related to the development of the refinery, including extensive asset, automation and electrification renewals,” says Marko Pekkola, Executive Vice President, Oil Products.
In order to manage the pandemic situation during the turnaround, a detailed health security plan has been prepared. It defines the planned extensive measure to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus. The measures include, for example, mandatory usage of face masks, keeping a safe distance and enhanced hand hygiene at the site, a negative test result prior to entering the site and regular testing during the turnaround, as well as effective monitoring of compliance throughout the turnaround.
The turnaround will not affect the product deliveries to Neste’s customers. The Neste harbour and distribution terminal in Porvoo are operating normally during the major turnaround.
As MRC reported earlier, Neste has recently announced that it would acquire Bunge Loders Croklaan's refinery plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The refinery plant is located next to Neste’s existing biorefinery and it consists of a pretreatment facility, tank farm, jetties and has a pipeline connection to Neste’s site. The acquisition has been approved by regulatory authorities, and the transaction has been completed on 1 March 2021. The transition of operations and employees will be implemented in phases with the refinery plant’s full and modified pretreatment capacity available for processing Neste’s feedstock by the end of 2024.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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