Autumn turnarounds will complete this year's maintenance and modernisation cycle at Slovnaft refinery

• in the autumn part of the planned turnarounds, maintenance of two production units of the refinery will be carried out, the total cost will reach 2 million euros
• the largest volume of work concerns the Gasoil Hydrotreating plant
• The Slovnaft Neighbour app will provide up-to-date information to residents in the vicinity of the refinery

Bratislava, 7 October 2022 - The autumn part of the planned maintenance work will start at the Slovnaft refinery in Bratislava on Saturday, 8 October 2022. A total of two production units will go into shutdown and will be back in operation on 27 November 2022. This is the last, smallest part of this year's cycle of planned shutdowns, divided into spring, summer and autumn.

The Gasoil Hydrotreating plant, where diesel is produced, will undergo a major turnaround in October. Slovnaft customers will not feel the shutdown of the production unit. The second unit, the Sulphuric Acid Regeneration, will be shut down in a technological shutdown with only cleaning work and minor repairs will be carried out before the coming winter.

Photo: Turnarounds in the Slovnaft refinery - illustrative shot

"The total maintenance costs will reach two million euros. The main contractor of the maintenance works is the single service company Slovnaft Montáže a Opravy. Approximately 180 external workers, mainly from engineering companies, will be involved in the turnarounds," explains Martin Bičan, manager of planned outages at Slovnaft. 

The Gasoil Hydrotreating plant is a key part of technologies in the production of diesel and during the turnaround will be subjected to inspections for safe operation in accordance with legislative requirements. At the Sulphuric Acid Regeneration plant, the encapsulated heat exchanger will be replaced. Together with the cleaning works, this will contribute to more efficient operation.

Photo: Turnarounds in the Slovnaft refinery - illustrative shot

The shutdown and start-up of the production units require activities whose concomitant phenomena may cause disturbance to the residents living in the vicinity of the refinery

"Our aim is to minimise the impact of our activities on the refinery's surroundings, but it is not possible to eliminate them completely. We regularly inform about the impact of the works on the comfort of the residents on our website as well as in The Neighbour Slovnaft app," adds M. Bičan.

The autumn phase will conclude this year's three blocks of planned turnarounds with the maintenance of 33 production units and total investments for inspections, checks, cleaning, repairs and investments at the level of EUR 69 million. Unique performances of the most challenging summer block with 21 production units turnaround included the replacement of two kilometres of pipelines, the replacement of the F1 roller furnace and C6 column at the Atmospheric Distillation Plant and the replacement of pumps at the circulation centres. The main objective was to reduce the environmental burden, reduce the energy impacts of crude oil product production and improve the safety of complex process equipment.

Photo: Turnarounds in the Slovnaft refinery - illustrative shot

The F1 cylindrical furnace at the Atmospheric Distillation Plant was replaced after 55 years of operation. A 750-tonne crawler crane was required to dispose of the old furnace and install the new one, which was pre-built on the premises of the production unit. The unique operation can be viewed in a time-lapse video.