Grupa Lotos SA, Poland’s second-largest refiner, has let a contract to KT-Kinetics Technology SPA, a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SPA, Milan, for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a hydrowax vacuum distillation unit (HVDU) as part of a revamp project at subsidiary Lotos Asfalt’s 10.5 million-tonne/year (tpy) Gdansk refinery.
KT-Kinetics Technology will complete its scope of work under the EPC contract, valued at about €36 million, by January 2018, Maire Tecnimont said.
The latest details on the HVDU project follows Grupa Lotos’ previous award of a €304-million, lump-sum turnkey EPC contract to KT-Kinetics Technology for implementation of three major units, including a delayed coker unit (DCU), a coker naphtha hydrotreater (CNHT), and a KT-licensed hydrogen generation unit (HGU), as well as associated units and infrastructure at the site as part of the Polish refiner’s Effective Refining Program (EFRA) (OGJ Online, July 15, 2015).
To be closely connected with crude processing units at the site, the new HVDU unit will process as much as 95 tonnes/hr, or more than 800,000 tpy, of untreated hydrocracking residue (hydrowax), as part of the company’s target to maximize the use of all byproducts and feedstock produced at each stage of crude processing, according to both Marek Sokołowski, Grupa Lotos’ vice-president of the management board, and Grzegorz Bledowski, EFRA project director.
In addition to the DCU, CNHT, HGU, and HVDU, EFRA will include installations for coke storage and loading, an oxygen generation unit, and an LPG treatment unit, according to Grupa Lotos, which has estimated the total capital cost of the project at about €517 million.
Proposed capacities for remaining planned units under EFRA have yet to be disclosed.
Designed to increase the refinery’s yield of high-margin middle distillates while simultaneously reducing in its output of less profitable heavy products, EFRA will increase overall production of high-margin products (primarily diesel oil and aviation fuel) at Gdansk to about 900,000 tpy as well as lift the refinery’s coke production to 350,000 tpy, Grupa Lotos said.
Once fully implemented, the EFRA project also will result in a $2/bbl increase to Gdansk’s refining margin, the company said.
Earlier in the year, Grupa Lotos issued investors the following timeline for EFRA’s completion:
• Fourth-quarter 2014: Execution of contracts for HDVU and OGU.
• Second-quarter 2017: Performance of EFRA-related work during Gdansk refinery’s scheduled maintenance shutdown and completion of OGU.
• Fourth-quarter 2017: Completion of HGU.
• First-quarter 2018: Completion of HVDU.
• Third-quarter 2018: Completion of tests and full commissioning of all EFRA units, including DCU.
Official implementation of the EFRA project at Gdansk began in October, Grupo Lotos recently told investors.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
