LITHUANIA: Polish owned Lithuanian refinery re-opens

The only refinery in the Baltic States, which was shut for maintenance in September, has restarted a week later than scheduled. The chief executive of the Lithuanian Mazeikiu refinery, owned by Polish group PKN Orlen , confirmed on Friday (November 16) that the plant was up and running again after a maintenance turnaround. The only refinery in the Baltic states shut for maintenance on September 22, and is restarting a week later than scheduled. A source told Reuters earlier this week that the plant was going to restart fully on Friday. This was confirmed by CEO Marek Mroczkowski. "We have just started the processing of the oil, we finished the basic reconstruction works. I would like to remind that there were over four thousand workers from outside the ICO Nafta company involved in the reconstruction, from fifteen countries. Around eighty companies had contracts signed with us. During the reconstruction we conducted works aimed not only on modernising the system but also for future investment," he told Reuters after meeting with Lithuania's economy minister. Mazeikiu replaced two heaters, revamped the fluid catalycic cracking reactor block and changed internal components at the crude distillation unit, the company said. The plant was running at 140,000 barrels per day, short of its full rate, as a fire-damaged vacuum distillation unit (VDU) is still being repaired. The damaged unit was expected to be repaired in the fourth quarter, and Mazeikiu is expected to get back to its full capacity of 197,000 bpd then. The refiner will aim to get back to its maximum rate by the beginning of December. Mroczkowski also said Mazeikiu could refine more Venezuelan crude in the future, depending on the price when compared with Russian oil. "We have this experience behind us. We know that we can process oil and we know what we can obtain from it. It is easier to make a more precise economic calculation ex ante," he said. Mazeikiu received one tanker of Venezuelan crude before the maintenance began in August. However, it was restarting with Russian crude, which Mazeikiu ships via its off-shore terminal in the Baltic Sea. Russian transit monopoly Transneft has cut crude supplies to Mazeikiu via the Druzhba pipeline, blaming a leak. Russia and Lithuania have said they do not expect the pipeline ever to be reopened.

ITN Source | November 19, 2007

Tags:. .investment. .damaged. .basic. .ex. .earlier