Rompetrol Rafinare SA, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunaiGaz, has completed a major turnaround of its 5 million-tonne/year Petromidia refinery in Navodari, Romania, on the Black Sea.
Wrapping in late November, the plant-wide turnaround, which occurs every 5 years, required an investment of $77.5 million and included both corrective and preventative maintenance and technical inspections designed to keep the refinery operating at its nominal capacity, Rompetrol Rafinare said.
The refinery, which has resumed normal production rates, is now operating at a planned crude processing rate of 14,000 tonnes/day, with the plant’s mechanical availability reaching 96.5% as a result of the scheduled maintenance work, according to Yedil Utekov, general director of Rompetrol Rafinare.
Despite the refinery’s more than month-long planned shutdown for execution of turnaround activities, the company estimates Petromidia’s overall finished product output to average 5 million tpy for 2015, Utekov said.
While the company informed investors in August that this year’s turnaround would include equipment inspections, routine maintenance, and catalyst replacement, details regarding other specific projects completed during the 2015 planned shutdown were not disclosed.
In 2013, Rompetrol Rafinare executed an upgrade and expansion program at Petromidia to increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity as a means of assuring competitiveness of Kazakh crude-based products in the Black Sea market, the company said in its annual report for 2014.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
