April 12 (SeeNews) - - Romania's top oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] said on Thursday that it will invest over 45 million euro ($55.5 million) in a turnaround of its Petrobrazi refinery.
During the turnaround, which will start on April 13, the refinery will be shut down, OMV Petrom said in a statement. The works will last approximately six weeks and will consist of maintenance and modernization works, inspection and verification of facilities as well as investments in a series of the main units of the oil refinery.
Over 5,000 workers will be involved in the turnaround, 4,000 more than during normal operation, which will inspect some 3,720 pipelines and 9,300 pieces of electronic and automation equipment. OMV Petrom is working on the project with eight main contractors and 33 subcontractors, of which 80% are Romanian companies.
"We have been planning this turnaround for two years. We want to reassure you that, although the refinery will be shut down for six weeks, we have taken measures to ensure that this will not impact the fuel distribution network. What’s more, tens of thousands of interventions are planned for the turnaround," OMV Petrom Executive Board member and responsible for Downstream Oil, Neil Anthony Morgan, said.
Following completion of the modernization works planned for this year, the mean time between turnarounds will increase to four years, with the next turnaround scheduled for 2022. Before 2014, turnarounds of this type were performed annually and, after the finalization of Petrobrazi modernization programme, the mean time between turnarounds was extended to two years.
The 45 million euro investment ads up to more than 1.5 billion euro already invested in the modernization of Petrobrazi between 2005 and 2017.
Petrobrazi refinery, with an annual refining capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of crude oil, is one of the most important units of this profile in Romania. The Petrobrazi output can meet the fuel demand of 3 million cars per year.
Shares of blue chip OMV Petrom traded 2.06% higher at 0.3475 lei as at 1220 CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
($=0.8101 euro)