OMV schedules 2-month turnaround for Austrian refinery

Austria’s OMV AG will shut down about half of its 203,892-b/d integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Schwechat, Austria, beginning in April for 2 months of routine turnaround activities.

Scheduled to occur every 6 years, this year’s turnaround at Schwechat will involve comprehensive cleaning, safety inspections, and preventative maintenance work at fuel production units, including crude distillation unit 4, the heart of the refinery, OMV said.

During the turnaround, OMV will suspend crude supplies into the refinery supply in order to clear the plant of hydrocarbons using steam and nitrogen, which will be followed by dismantling and cleaning of processing unit components for inspections, pressure tests, and possible repairs, the operator said.

OMV, which began preparatory work for the 2016 turnaround 2 years ago, said a central aspect of the scheduled shutdown also will include work to integrate a desulfurization column delivered to the refinery in June 2015 into plant operations.

As part of the turnaround, TUV Austria Holding AG’s Schwechat division will carry out inspections on the following: 16 process furnaces, 44 columns (mostly distillation installations), 478 heat exchangers, 2,128 valves, and 1,090 safety valves.

Alongside planned repairs to existing piping within the plant, the turnaround also will include replacement of 12.6 km of pipes, OMV said.

The company has scheduled a turnaround of petrochemical units at the Schwechat integrated complex in 2017.

In 2014, OMV completed a $41 million project to expand butadiene production capacity at the Schwechat complex to 60,000 tonnes/year as part of its strategy to boost output of petrochemical derivatives (OGJ Online, May 19, 2014).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].