Greek refiner Helleniq Energy has slashed bitumen production at its 66,500 b/d Thessaloniki refinery, tightening regional supply at a time of rising seasonal demand for road paving.
The refinery is only making up to 1,500 t/week of bitumen available to domestic and inland truck export markets at the moment, against its usual rate of around 6,000 t/week during the road construction season, according to a local trading firm. The refinery has opted to switch, at least temporarily, to producing fuel oil rather than bitumen and has adjusted its crude slate to effect that change, the firm said.
Market participants expect reduced bitumen output and supply rates at Thessaloniki to continue into next week before a possible return to normal production and availability in late June. Helleniq is moving small-scale truck supplies from a third-party terminal at Kavala in Greece to help alleviate the shortfall.
The reduction in supply from Thessaloniki coincides with limited availability of exports from OMV's 193,700 b/d Schwechat refinery in Austria, which is in the middle of an eight-week turnaround expected to continue into July.
Meanwhile, Serbian refiner Nis resumed bitumen production at its 110,000 b/d Pancevo refinery on 8 June after a halt caused by crude supply issues, but the firm will have insufficient bitumen output for truck export shipments for the rest of this month at least. Pancevo received a cargo of Iraqi Basrah Medium crude on 5-6 June. It had been using Iraqi Kirkuk blend as its main alternative to Russian Urals, but Kirkuk exports via the Turkish port of Ceyhan have been halted since late March.
