Finnish firm Neste has restarted production at its 197,000 b/d Porvoo refinery after completing a major turnaround at the plant.
The maintenance work started in early April and was slated to last 12 weeks. It constituted the second part of a larger project, of which the most essential elements were completed in 2020 and the rest delayed until this year because of challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ahead of the restart, Porvoo received its first seaborne crude delivery since early April on 5 June, according to Vortexa data. "We also executed preparatory measures for the processing of renewable and circular raw materials at the Porvoo refinery," said the refinery's vice-president of production Jori Sahlsten.
The refinery is going to co-process fossil and renewable oil following conversion work. Neste has said that it does not expect oil product demand to recover to pre-pandemic levels and that "fundamental changes" are therefore required to preserve competitiveness.
Neste says the work at Porvoo did not affect oil product deliveries to its customers. "The Neste harbour and distribution terminal in Porvoo have been operating normally during the major turnaround", it said.
