Romania: OMV Petrom completes 600MEUR oil refinery modernization

Published on 29. July 2014., SEE Energy News

OMV Petrom announced the successful completion of the modernization program in its oil refinery Petrobrazi, conducted in 2010-2014. The total investment for the modernization amounted to about 600 million euros. The refinery was fully adapted to process crude oil production OMV Petrom in Romania and can process more oil as required by market.

The main objective of the modernization was to increase competitiveness. OMV Petrom can now process the entire oil production in Romania in a single refinery. Petrobrazi capacity adjustment to 4.2 million tons / year ensures efficient processing of whole oil production company in Romania, exploiting specific integrated company OMV Petrom.
Following the upgrade, diesel and kerosene will have a weight of up to 45% in the structure of products obtained from Petrobrazi. If in 2009 Petrobrazi could produce about 900,000 tons of oil annually present production capacity up to 1,500,000 tons.

“Increasing the production Petrobrazi diesel share will help us better respond to market demand in Romania. In the past, when designing the refinery, gasoline consumption was higher than diesel, but in recent years this trend has been reversed, “said Neil Anthony Morgan, member of OMV Petrom, responsible for Refining and Marketing.

In addition, the installation of modern equipment and refining capacity adjustment will have a positive impact on the efficiency of the refinery. Total energy consumption of the refinery will be reduced by 25% compared to 2009. Upon completing the program of modernization, the refinery now has an index of 11.28 Nelson1, local and regional level over competitors.

The project inclued areas which were upgraded, extended or replaced:

– Diesel hydrotreater unit
– Catalytic cracking unit
– Coker
– Atmospheric distillation unit and vacuum
– Desulphurisation unit and sulfur recovery
– Hydrogen Plant
– Within the refinery tank farm.

The modernization process was complex, given that most of the works were carried out during two general scheduled refinery shutdowns. Operations in the final phase involved about 5,000 people and was completed on time.