OMV Petrom lets contract for Petrobrazi refinery’s SAF-HVO project
OMV Aktiengesellschaft’s majority owned OMV Petrom SA has let a contract to John Wood Group PLC to provide a suite of services related to construction of a new plant for production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewables-based diesel—or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO)—at the operator’s 4.5-million tonne/year (tpy) Petrobrazi refinery in southeast Romania, near Ploiesti City.
As part of the Dec. 19 contract, Wood will deliver engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) for installation of a new bio-hydrotreating unit and associated storage infrastructure at the refinery to enable the project that, once completed, will become the region’s first major SAF production plant, the service provider said.
Wood confirmed award of the EPCM contract follows its earlier delivery of front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the new plant that will use Honeywell UOP LLC’s proprietary Ecofining process technology for its production of renewable fuels.
Approved in June 2024 at an overall investment of €560 million, OMV Petrom said the proposed plant will be able to process a mix of biofeedstocks to produce a combined 250,000 tpy of SAF and HVO (biodiesel), including by-products such as bio-naphtha and bio-LPG (OGJ Online, June 11, 2024).
Designed with flexibility allowing OMV Petrom to adjust production slates at any given time based on market demand and feedstock availability, the SAF-HVO plant will receive most of its 11,000-tpy hydrogen supply required for the manufacturing process from the Petrobrazi refinery’s earlier-approved €190-million on-site hydrogen plant that—once completed—will include two water electrolysis plants of 35 Mw and 20 Mw capable of producing about 8,000 tpy of carbon-free green hydrogen (OGJ Online, Feb. 27, 2024).
Scheduled for startup in 2028, the SAF-HVO plant also will enable the refinery to meet the operator’s expectations for gradually rising regional demand for low-carbon products, while simultaneously helping Romania reduce renewable-fuel imports into the country.
OMV Petrom previously said it expects the refinery’s integration of green hydrogen into sustainable-fuel production will result in at least a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to conventional fuels.
The SAF-HVO and green hydrogen projects come as part of OMV Petrom’s broader €11-billion investment under its Strategy 2030 to transform the Petrobrazi refinery in line with the operator’s commitment to transform the company for a reduced-carbon future.
As part of its journey to net-zero operations by 2050, OMV Petrom is targeting production of 450,000 tpy of renewable diesel and SAF from sustainable feedstock by 2030 per the operator’s sustainability framework launched in 2021 (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2022).
In 2022, the Petrobrazi refinery began tests runs for production of SAF via co-processing of locally produced rapeseed oil following a pilot program at the site performed in July 2020 (OGJ Online, Nov. 19, 2020).
Together, the Petrobrazi refinery upgrades and new SAF production will support the European Commission's goals to reach 6% SAF at European Union airports by 2030 and 70% by 2050, ultimately helping to decarbonize the aviation industry, Wood said.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
