Neste advances integration of Finnish refineries
Neste Corp. will proceed with a previously announced plan to invest €60 million in the 3 million-tonne/year (tpy) Naantali refinery in Findland as part of the company’s broader program to keep its European operations competitive through consolidation of its Finnish refining assets (OGJ Online, Oct. 7, 2014).
The Naantali investment, which will be used to carry out various utility-related enhancements intended to simplify the refinery’s structure and improve its processing efficiency, follows the company’s October 2014 decision to closely integrate the plant with the 9.8 million-tpy Porvoo refinery so that the sites will operate as a single system, Neste said.
Naantali will continue to produce diesel and specialty products, including solvents and bitumen, and maintain an important role in producing feedstocks, such as vacuum gas oil, for production lines in Porvoo.
Additionally, gasoline components produced at Naantali will be refined into finished products at Porvoo, with Naantali’s terminal capacity to be used for distributing Porvoo’s gasoline production, Neste said.
Integration of the Naantali-Porvoo operations also will enable increased diesel production alongside a simultaneous reduction in heavy fuel oil output.
Neste said the refining consolidation program is scheduled to be completed and the new Naantali-Porvoo operating model fully commissioned by mid-2017.
In June, Neste completed a 2-month, €100-million planned maintenance turnaround at the Porvoo refinery, which alongside standard 5-year maintenance to ensure safe and reliable operations, also involved the following projects related to the refinery’s future development:
• 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 (OGJ Online, June 16, 2015; Mar. 23, 2015).
Neste also plans to build a €200-million solvent deasphalt (SDA) feedstock pretreatment unit at Porvoo as part of the €500-million refining consolidation and integration program.
Last year, Neste let a contract to Neste Jacobs Oy to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management services for the SDA project, according to an Oct. 13, 2014, release from Neste.
Designed to improve the refinery’s production structure and ability to optimize its crude slate, the SDA unit is scheduled to be completed in 2017.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
