Between March 29th and May 10th 2012, the Gdańsk refinery will undergo a scheduled overhaul, for which the Company has been gearing up for nearly a year and a half. LOTOS has accumulated appropriate stocks of products to be placed on the market so that the stoppage does not affect its customers.

In-between overhauls, the Company's production facilities operate at a capacity of up to 99.2%. By comparison, refining units in the EU work at an average capacity of slightly over 80%.

“LOTOS has one of the most advanced refineries in the European Union, where approximately 90 facilities of this type operate in a highly competitive market,” said Marek Sokołowski, Vice-President of the Management Board, Chief Operation Officer. “To maintain our leading position in the industry, not only do we have to expand our production capacities, but also ensure their efficient and failure-free operation. To that end, we carry out overhauls.”

The Spring 2013 overhaul will cover 51 units, more than 5,000 pieces of equipment and 2,500 devices and pipeline sections. Such a heavy workload requires the refinery to hire nearly 2,200 external staff who will work 6-7 days a week, frequently on a round-the-clock basis. But first and foremost, an undertaking on this scale needs to be carefully planned. We began preparations as far back as November 2011 with a 100-strong team of experts from all industries.

“We are putting in place new standards for overhaul shutdowns based on our experience with previous ones, in order to eliminate everything that hindered our work in the past,” said Grzegorz Błędowski, Technical Director at Grupa LOTOS S.A.

It is very important to ensure uninterrupted supplies of LOTOS products to the market during the refinery's shutdown. The sales division has been busy developing effective solutions for a year now, so that customers will continue to receive their refinery products, despite the shutdown.

“Overhauls of this scale are the best way to ensure that the refinery operates reliably, safely and efficiently up until the next stoppage. The physical and chemical processes taking place in the refinery often involve high temperatures and pressures, as a result of which the technical condition of the apparatuses, pipelines and equipment naturally gets worse as time goes by. Therefore, during the overhaul we perform tens of thousands of inspections, checks and diagnostic tests before admitting the facility to further operation. If necessary, the equipment is repaired or replaced with new items,” explains Tomasz Branicki, Head of the Maintenance Office at Grupa LOTOS S.A.

The need to carry out a major overhaul every four years follows from operational experience and inspection regulations.

“During the stoppage, several areas of the facility will undergo an upgrade in order to further increase their capacities. The process furnaces at the refinery will be replaced, and the column in the flue gas desulphurisation unit will be upgraded. We also plan to modernise the hydrocracking unit, the liquid gas separation facility and the unit for the production of oil bases,” adds Grzegorz Błędowski.

To streamline and centralise the refinery's operation, the control systems for the fuel and oil complexes will be moved to new locations. After completion of the overhaul, the entire technological process will be monitored from a single, even more secure location.

Communication Office
Grupa LOTOS S.A.
ul. Elbląska 135,
80-718 Gdańsk,
tel. 58 308 87 31, 58 308 83 88, 58 308 83 55,
e-mail: media@grupalotos.pl