Prague, March 19, 2018 – At the end of March, the Unipetrol Group will launch its planned shutdown of the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou. Regular maintenance of all equipment in the facility will start on March 27, and during this time, the service will be completely shut down. Its end is scheduled for May 9. More than 1,800 people will be involved in the turnaround period. Total costs will exceed one billion crowns, of which CZK 400 million is intended for new investment projects. The last shutdown was in autumn 2013.
"The shutdown is a planned halting of production, the primary reason being the regular maintenance of all technologies in the area according to legislative and technical and technological requirements. It is also an opportunity to implement investment projects and technological changes that we would otherwise have to install while operating or during a partial downtime, which could have an impact on the smoothness and economic efficiency of the operation," explains Jaroslav Hacko, Production Manager of the Unipetrol Group’s Kralupy nad Vltavou Refinery.
During the shutdown, around 350 employees of the refinery will be working on the premises with 1,500 employees from external suppliers. “We have a detailed logistics plan and a timetable for all operations so that we can do everything in time and at the same time the work on the site will have a minimal impact on the environment. Special emphasis is placed on work safety, not only for our employees but also for external contractors," emphasises Jaroslav Hacko.
Although production at the refinery will be discontinued, the number of staff on-site as well as traffic on both the internal and external roads will increase. "For safety purposes, a temporary speed limitation on the access road to the refinery will be set in cooperation with the Czech Police. We apologise in advance for possible increased operations and light or sound effects during the shutdown. We will try to minimise these effects," says Jaroslav Hacko.
The turnaround at the Kralupy Refinery will be the largest in its history. Compared to the past, it differs in the volume of service and investment work, which is much more extensive and relates to key facilities. “In the fluid catalytic cracking unit, the reactor and part of the combustion chamber will be replaced. The reforming furnace will also undergo modernisation. Development investments include, for example, the installation of twisted heat exchangers and the new filling in the reactor stripper of a fluid catalytic cracking unit," calculates Jaroslav Hacko. The maintenance and modernisation of the site will help to make production more efficient, achieve better yields and ensure compliance with the current legislative requirements of the European Union and the Czech Republic on the implementation of best available techniques (BATs).
The gradual phasing out of the production process will start on March 20. Complete plant stoppage and handing over for the maintenance will take place on March 27. On May 9, the work is expected to finish and gradual start of the production units will begin. “If everything goes according to plan, we will reach full operations again on May 16," plans Jaroslav Hacko.
The total costs to Unipetrol of the turnaround in Kralupy nad Vltavou will reach CZK 1.1 billion. Approximately CZK 700 million is dedicated to the actual shutdown work and CZK 400 million is reserved for investment development projects.
The refinery and petrochemical group Unipetrol is the only crude oil processor in the Czech Republic, an important producer of fuels, plastics and fertilisers, and the owner of the Benzina petrol station network, which, with its 402 stations, is the largest network in the Czech Republic. Oil is fed to the Czech Republic from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline. From Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Arab and African countries, oil flows through the IKL pipeline (Ingolstadt - Kralupy nad Vltavou - Litvínov), which follows the TAL oil pipeline from Trieste, Italy. In the Czech Republic, two Unipetrol refineries process the imported crude oil – in Kralupy nad Vltavou and Záluží u Litvínova, where the related production of petrochemical products is based. The total volume of oil supplies to the Czech Republic reaches eight million tons a year, of which approximately one third is processed in the Kralupy nad Vltavou refinery.