MOSCOW (MRC) -- Slovnaft refinery has completed its historically largest turnarounds on 21 production units, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The refinery is in full operation after modernization and maintenance. Maintenance on three other petrochemical production units in the refinery will follow in the autumn.
This year’s regular turnarounds finished in the summer, they were the largest in the history of the refinery. SLOVNAFT Group employees and almost 2,000 external workers participated in their preparation and following maintenance and inspection. Total investments on the turnarounds reached EUR75 million.
Several new projects were also implemented during the regular turnarounds. They are expected to contribute to the more efficient, reliable and safe operation of the refinery.
Almost 1000 larger and smaller tasks is planned during turnarounds in autumn. This will mostly involve maintenance and inspection, as well as activities resulting from legislative requirements. Part of projects will focus on reducing nitrogen emissions into atmosphere and on modernization as well.
As MRC wrote before, in July 2019, Tatneft and Slovnaft announced they had signed a cooperation agreement for the development of joint projects in the downstream sector.
Slovnaft is a crude oil refining enterprise located in Bratislava, Slovakia. The maximum annual refining capacity is 6 million tons of crude oil, which is primarily supplied via the "Druzhba" pipeline. The dominating place in the production portfolio belongs to motor fuel (about 4.5 million tons/year), chemicals (200 thousand tons/year) and primary plastic materials (400 thousand tons/year).
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption was 1,081,100 tonnes in the first half of 2019, up by 8% year on year. Deliveries of all PE grades increased. Meanwhile, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.
Slovnaft is one of the most technologically equipped oil refineries in Europe. One third part of the motor fuel produced is sold in Slovakia, and two thirds are exported mainly to the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland and Germany. Plastic materials are sold throughout Europe. The Slovnaft share of the wholesale motor fuels market in Slovakia accounts for more than 60%, while it is about 20% in the Czech Republic and Austria. Slovnaft operates 253 filling stations in Slovakia under the company’s own brand, while the total share in the retail market for the sale of petroleum products is about 35%. In addition to operating the oil refining and petrochemical production complex in Bratislava, the company is running the wholesale business in CEE, retail activities in Slovakia and Slovnaft also owns and operates the product pipeline and several trading terminals in Slovakia. The annual turnover of Slovnaft amounts to about 3-4 billion Euros. There are more than 3,400 employees on the company’s payroll.
MRC