Major turnaround completed at Neste’s Porvoo refinery in Finland

The Porvoo refinery produces both HVO and petroleum fuels (Photo: Neste Corp.)

The scheduled maintenance, also known as the major turnaround, at Neste’s Porvoo refinery in Finland is now successfully completed and production has started at the refinery.

The major turnaround is a significant investment to secure safety, availability and competitiveness of the refinery. The total investment of the Porvoo refinery major turnaround was approximately 630 million euros, of which approximately 330 million euros was realized in the major turnaround in 2021. In 2020, only the most critical maintenance work was executed at the refinery as the corona pandemic delayed the turnaround by a year. “We executed a large number of regulatory inspections, maintenance works and asset improvement initiatives at the Porvoo refinery to ensure the safety and reliability of the refinery,” said Jori Sahlsten, vice president of production at the Neste Porvoo refinery. “The turnaround works focused on, among other things, process equipment and pipelines, and we also extensively renewed the refinery’s electrification and automation systems. During the major turnaround, we also executed preparatory measures for the processing of renewable and circular raw materials at the Porvoo refinery.”

During the major turnaround, the Porvoo refinery was one of the largest construction sites in Finland. In total, some 6,000 persons took part in the turnaround works and more than 1.5 million working hours were completed. In order to manage the pandemic situation during the major turnaround, a detailed health security plan was prepared with extensive measures to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus. Neste worked closely with authorities, nearby municipalities and cities as well as health care professionals throughout the turnaround. Thanks to the comprehensive precautionary measures, the coronavirus situation at the refinery remained calm. Regular coronavirus tests were done to every person working in the turnaround. All in all, approximately 61,000 coronavirus tests were taken, out of which 97 infections were identified. “We would like to thank our partners for the seamless cooperation, their expertise and active dialogue,” said Hannele Jakosuo-Jansson, a senior vice president at Neste. “Extensive preparation and close cooperation, as well as common rules at the turnaround site, played a key role in the successful execution of the major turnaround at the Porvoo refinery. Thanks to versatile measures and effective tracing executed in cooperation with the health authorities, asymptomatic cases of infection and potential exposures were identified and spreading of the virus and chains of infection on the site were prevented.”

The major turnaround did not affect the product deliveries to Neste’s customers. The Neste harbor and distribution terminal in Porvoo have been operating normally during the major turnaround.