Neste plans major turnaround at Porvoo refinery

Neste Oil Corp. will begin a 2-month planned maintenance turnaround beginning in April at its 9.8 million-tonne/year Porvoo refinery in the Kilpilahti Industrial Area, about 20 miles east of Helsinki.

The major turnaround, to be the largest in the plant’s history and its first since 2010, is scheduled to start on Apr. 6 with unit shutdowns and will last about 8 weeks, Neste Oil said.

In addition to executing standard maintenance work designed to optimize the safety, reliability, and efficiency of Porvoo’s operations, the company also plans to use the spring turnaround to carry out a series of other projects related to the refinery’s future development, including:

• Installation of furnaces in the crude oil distilling unit.

• Replacement of automation in several unidentified areas of the refinery.

• Preparation of connections for other unidentified, future investment projects.

Neste Oil’s total investment into the turnaround amounts to about €100 million, according to the refiner.

The maintenance shutdown will not impact the refinery’s oil terminal or distribution of products via road, and the company will continue to sell products from storage, Neste Oil said.

In October 2014, Neste Oil announced it would invest €500 million in a program designed to closely integrate refinery operations at its Porvoo and 3 million-tpy Naantali refineries to achieve better operational and cost efficiencies as part of an effort to keep the company’s European operations competitive (OGJ Online, Oct. 7, 2014).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].