Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Feb. 27 -- A small-scale fire Feb. 25 caused by a flange leak at Neste Oil Corp.'s Porvoo refinery in Finland will delay to mid-April the commissioning the new diesel production line at the refinery. Start up of the more than €700 million diesel expansion was originally expected by yearend 2006, then was rescheduled to late March of this year.
No other part of the refinery was affected in the incident. Neste said, "Personnel were not injured in the fire that caused damage primarily to some electric cables."
Neste said in 2003 that it would expand diesel production by 1 million tonnes/year at the sophisticated 200,000 b/d refinery, and construction began in 2004.
Porvoo produces high quality, low-emission motor fuels from residue oil. Although the overall capacity of the refinery will remain the same, Neste said, the diesel production line will enable an increase in the refining of heavy oil or other crude into products such as sulfur-free diesel to meet strict European and North American environmental standards.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
