Polish integrated oil company Orlen said it has decided to end phenol and acetone production at its Plock petrochemicals site by the end of this year.
The decision to decommission the 50,000 t/yr phenol unit was mainly because of technical and environmental reasons, Orlen said. The unit also produces about 30,000t of acetone as co-product.
"The continued operation of the plant, which has been in operation for nearly 60 years, would necessitate an extensive and costly modernisation," Orlen said, adding that further investments will be needed to comply with tightening EU environmental regulations.
The revenue generated from the continued phenol and acetone production at Plock will be inadequate to cover the cost of these investments, Orlen said.
The 75,000 t/yr cumene unit, which supplies feedstocks to the phenol unit, at Plock will also close as a consequence.
The phenol and acetone markets in Europe have been struggling to cope with high energy costs, overcapacity, weak demand and increased imports, mainly of downstream products from Asia-Pacific. This has led to idling of some phenol and acetone production in Europe.
Orlen in July 2024 said it had cancelled long-delayed plans to build a new phenol unit integrated with the 373,000 b/d Plock refinery as part of a site-wide petrochemical expansion project. The plans, which involved building a new cracker, were placed under review later in the year as part of a strategy update because of rising costs and the weak outlook in the petrochemical sector. Orlen pushed back plans to construct the cracker, which has an ethylene capacity of 740,000 t/yr, to "no sooner than 2030."
