Portugal’s oil and gas giant Galp is to invest €128 million on keeping its refinery at Sines in tip-top operational condition.
Part of the industrial unit that houses the sole refinery left in Portugal after Matosinhos was deactivated this year, and which produces 220,000 barrels of petroleum per day, was closed for 48 days in January, costing Galp €41 million.
The refinery will also shut for the two months of October and November for maintenance with an estimated cost to the company of €87 million.
Despite the stoppage, the Sines refinery was never and will not be 100% paralysed with production continuing.
Moreover, an official source at the company told the newspaper Negócios, “stoppages are part and parcel of normal operations for a refinery, so we can’t say it causes losses”.
Galp Energia’s refinery is one of the largest refineries in Europe, with an annual processing capacity of 10.8MT. It began operations in 1978 and has since been modified to add conversion units.
The refinery is spread across 320Ha and comprises of 25 process units. It produces gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel oil, naphtha, jet fuel, bitumen and sulphur.
In its H1 results, Galp had a net profit of €508 million, up 21% on the same period of 2022.
In presenting its H1 results, Galp referred to the “refinery’s good industrial performance at Sines”, taking into account the “favourable environment”, while continuing preparatory work for its mega decarbonisation project for the refinery by switching to green hydrogen and sustainable fuels.
Between January and March, 19.6 million barrels of oil were processed at Sines, a fall of 10% in relation to the same quarter in 2022 (21.8 million barrels) because of the maintenance works.
Source: Essential Business
