Neste’s Porvoo prepares for major turnaround

Finland's Neste started preparations for scheduled maintenance at its 205,000 b/d Porvoo refinery on 1 April, with the nine-week turnaround due to start in mid-April.

The current preparations include the "shutdowns of process units", Neste said.

The turnaround involves shutting down the entire refinery for "statutory inspections, maintenance works and asset improvement initiatives", aiming to make Porvoo "the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030 and to reach carbon-neutral production by 2035", Neste said.

Neste plans to convert Porvoo into a 3mn t/yr renewables facility, at a cost of €2.5bn ($2.74bn). The conversion is to be carried out in stages and to be completed in the mid-2030s.

Porvoo houses a 250,000 t/yr Group III base oil unit and accounts for around 28pc of Europe's Group III nameplate capacity.

Group III prices have started to rise as disruption in the Red Sea has delayed vessel arrivals and limited supply.

The Porvoo turnaround will tighten spot availability further and increase Europe's reliance on delayed imports.

The refinery has recently been affected by strike action since 11 March, which has since been extended twice, with the latest end date set to 7 April.

The industrial action is in response to government plans for labour market reforms.

The strike has impacted "stevedoring jobs" and "Viking Line's cargo handling tasks in the ports of Helsinki and Turku", the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions told Argus.

Fuel distribution has also been disrupted.

"We are working hard to keep fuel distribution ongoing as well as possible in this difficult situation. But as we have already said, the situation is getting worse, and the fuel availability at the stations changes daily," Neste told Argus on 27 March.

By Christian Hotten