By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 4 -- Hellenic Petroleum SA expects to complete work next year on upgrades of two of its refineries in Greece.
The company, based in Marousi northwest of Athens, will finish scheduled mechanical work by yearend at its 66,500-b/sd hydroskimming refinery at Thessaloniki, where it is debottlenecking distillation capacity and adding a 15,000-b/d continuous catalytic reformer (OGJ, Aug. 11, 2008, Newsletter). It will shut down the refinery for maintenance and tie-ins in the first quarter of 2011.
The Thessaloniki refinery is integrated with Hellenic’s 146,500-b/sd facility at Aspropyrgos, which has fluid catalytic cracking capacity, and a 100,000-b/sd topping refinery at Elefsina, both in Greece. It also sends crude oil to the company’s 50,000-b/sd hydroskimming Okta refinery at Skopje, Macedonia, with which it is linked by pipeline.
Hellenic’s other upgrade is of the Elefsina refinery, to which it is adding a 40,000-b/d hydrocracker and a 20,000-b/d flexicoker (OGJ, Mar. 27, 2006, Newsletter). Construction is under way, with completion due in the second half of next year.
When the project is complete, the Elefsina refinery’s capacity for handling medium to high-sulfur crude oil will increase to 100% from 60%. Its yield of light products will increase to 100% from 52%.
