Orlen's major project at Lithuanian refinery on schedule

Orlen SA subsidiary Orlen Lietuva AB is on pace with construction of a major plant included as part of the ongoing modernization program at its 10-million tonne/year (tpy) refinery in Mažeikiai, Lithuania.

The more-than 90-m long, 1,500-tonne key reactor of a new residue hydrocracking unit (RHCU) to be installed at the refinery has arrived for offloading at Lithuania’s port of Klaipeda and will be delivered about 145 km to the construction site via a 2-week road journey beginning this weekend, Orlen said on Aug. 3.

Part of the operator’s planned bottom-of-the-barrel improvement program, the Mažeikiai RHCU project progressing on schedule to reach mechanical completion by yearend 2024 for targeted production of cleaner, higher-quality products in 2025, the operator said.

“The [RHCU] plant will bring about a substantial improvement in the profitability and margins of the Mažeikiai refinery, making the company less dependent on the volatile macroeconomic environment. This will enable further development of the company towards new products and extension of the value chain,” said Daniel Obajtek, Orlen’s chief executive officer and president.

Alongside increasing the refinery’s yield of high-margin products to 84% from the current 72%, commissioning of the RHCU also will enable the site to reduce crude oil throughputs while continuing to produce a similar volume of finished fuels. Following the RHCU’s startup, the Mažeikiai refinery will be able to achieve production yields by processing only 8 million tpy of crude, down 2 million tpy from its design capacity, Orlen said.

The operator most recently estimated total capital investment on the RHCU project at €640 million (OGJ Online, May 4, 2023).