MOSCOW (MRC) -- The scheduled maintenance i.e. the major turnaround at Neste’s Porvoo refinery in Finland is now successfully completed and production has started at the refinery, as per the company's press release.
The major turnaround is a significant investment to secure safety, availability and competitiveness of the refinery. The total investment of the Porvoo refinery major turnaround was approximately EUR630 million, of which approximately EUR 330 million was realized in the major turnaround in 2021. In 2020, only the most critical maintenance work was executed at the refinery as the corona pandemic delayed the turnaround by a year.
“We executed a large number of regulatory inspections, maintenance works and asset improvement initiatives at the Porvoo refinery to ensure the safety and reliability of the refinery. The turnaround works focused on, among other things, process equipment and pipelines, and we also extensively renewed the refinery's electrification and automation systems. During the major turnaround, we also executed preparatory measures for the processing of renewable and circular raw materials at the Porvoo refinery,” says Jori Sahlsten, Vice President, Production at the Neste Porvoo refinery.
During the major turnaround, the Porvoo refinery was one of the largest construction sites in Finland. In total, some 6,000 persons took part in the turnaround works and over 1.5 million working hours were completed.
In order to manage the pandemic situation during the major turnaround, a detailed health security plan was prepared with extensive measures to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus. Neste worked closely with authorities, nearby municipalities and cities as well as health care professionals throughout the turnaround. Thanks to the comprehensive precautionary measures, the corona situation at the refinery remained calm. Regular corona tests were done to every person working in the turnaround. All in all approximately 61,000 corona tests were taken, out of which 97 infections were identified.
The major turnaround did not affect the product deliveries to Neste’s customers. The Neste harbour and distribution terminal in Porvoo have been operating normally during the major turnaround.
As MRC reported earlier, Neste is committed to reaching carbon neutrality in its production by 2035. As part of this effort, Neste aims for 100% renewable electricity use globally by 2023. In order to proceed with this target, Neste will increase the use of renewable electricity at its Porvoo refinery and has signed a new wind power agreement with a wind power company Ilmata.
Neste (Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. The company refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. The company is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. In 2020, Neste's revenue stood at EUR 11.8 billion, with 94% of the company’s comparable operating profit coming from renewable products.
We remind that in May 2021, Neste, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Toyota Tsusho Corp. announced they are joining forces to enable Japan’s first industrial-scale production of renewable plastics and chemicals from 100% bio-based hydrocarbons. In this collaboration, Mitsui Chemicals will use Neste RE, 100% bio-based hydrocarbons produced by Neste, to replace a part of the fossil feedstock in the production of a variety of plastics and chemicals at its crackers within Osaka Works during 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
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