Turnaround under way at Unipetrol’s Litvínov refinery, petrochemical complex

Unipetrol AS, a subsidiary of Polski Koncern Naftowy SA (PKN Orlen), is progressing with a modified version of its regularly scheduled 4-year major turnaround at its Chempark Záluží petrochemical complex in Litvínov, Czech Republic, which includes refining arm Unipetrol RPA SRO-Rafinerie’s 5.4 million-tonnes/year Litvínov refinery.

The turnaround—for which controlled shutdown of production units began on Apr. 9 for start of maintenance activities on Apr. 15—is now in full swing, though at a modified scope as part of measures to ensure safety and health of workers at the site during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Unipetrol said in a post to its official LinkedIn account as well as updates on the company’s website.

While the turnaround’s original scope was to include 5,800 maintenance activities, the operator halved that number to a necessary minimum of about 2,300 activities focusing only on projects aimed at ensuring upgrades, maintenance, and preparation of production technologies for the next 4-year production cycle.

Unipetrol said key projects during the scheduled maintenance period include repair of the refinery’s atmospheric distillation unit’s furnace, replacement of underground pipes for cooling water in the partial oxidation production unit, and service repairs of large compressors in the complex’s steam cracker.

Alongside revising the scope of projects to be executed during the planned shutdown, Unipetrol also reduced turnaround personnel to 1,260 individuals from an originally planned staff of 2,800.

All turnaround work is scheduled to be completed on May 31, with production units to be gradually put back into operation through June 14, Unipetrol said.