Construction of a sea transshipment terminal on the Martwa Wisła begins
The ORLEN Group invests more than PLN 0.5 billion in the Gdańsk refinery to strengthen the security and reliability of product supplies. On the refinery quay, a terminal for handling sea vessels will be built, which from 2025 will allow the transhipment of over a million tonnes of products, including base oils, marine fuels or bio-additives for fuels. The contractor of the investment will be a consortium of companies led by the Sopot-based NDI Group. At the same time, a state-of-the-art Hydrocracked Base Oil (HBO) facility related to the terminal is being built. The value of this project is over PLN 1.4 billion.
The HBO system, implemented since 2021, will improve the economics of crude oil processing. The introduction on the Polish and foreign markets of the advanced Group II base oils, which are a completely new category of products, will result in a significant increase in the competitiveness of the Group. The system is expected to produce more than 400,000 tonnes of these oils and tens of thousands of tonnes of fuel intermediates annually.
“According to the declarations, we focus on the dynamic development of Gdańsk assets, using their value to achieve the strategic goals of the entire ORLEN Group. We are allocating a total of PLN 2 billion to investments that will increase the profitability of crude oil processing of the refinery, as well as strengthen the security of product supplies. By investing in our internal infrastructure, we increase our independence from external partners and thus generate significant savings in the area of logistics. Importantly, we use the potential of local companies, which we will commission to work on the project,” says Daniel Obajtek, President of the Management Board of PKN ORLEN.
The target transshipment capacity of the sea terminal located on the Martwa Wisła in the coming years may amount to up to 2 million tonnes of products per year. The implementation of the investment will improve the profitability and security of the supply of biocomponents for the production of fuels (biopetrol and biodiesel) and transport of products (base oils and marine fuels) produced in the refinery. The terminal will also reduce traffic on the railway siding operating on the premises of the plant because it is where products are currently transported between the refinery and external transshipment points.
The project includes the construction of a transshipment quay to handle sea vessels up to 130-metre-long, with an immersion depth of up to approx. 5.8 m and a width of up to 17.6 m. The works included, among others, the construction of a quay with two transshipment stations serving tankers (each with 4 loading arms) and the necessary infrastructure, i.e. buildings, pipelines, steel flyovers, underground and auxiliary infrastructure connecting the terminal with the Gdańsk refinery. The project will be implemented by a consortium consisting of the companies from the Sopot-based NDI Group (consortium leader), Biproraf sp. z o.o., BPBM “PROJMORS” Sp. z o.o. and Dipl. Ing. SCHERZER GmbH. The general contractor will operate in the so-called “turnkey” formula.
“Another engineering challenge is ahead of us – a project with a high degree of complexity, very technologically advanced. The works are carried out at a crucial point, that is the area of the Gdańsk refinery. This requires from us very precise planning and execution of work while maintaining the highest safety standards. Our consortium consists of experienced entities that complement each other in the project implementation, and we as a leader will ensure that cooperation between all participants in the process runs smoothly and with benefit for the project,” says Małgorzata Winiarek-Gajewska, President of the Management Board of the NDI Group.
The terminal will enable the reloading of components and biocomponents that are ingredients of biofuels (biodiesel and biopetrol) such as: FAME, i.e. bioesters – fatty acid methyl esters, obtained from vegetable oils and used as a component of diesel; UCOME, i.e. second-generation biofuels, produced using waste, e.g. frying oil; MTBE methyl tert-butyl ether – an organic component of petrol, increasing its octane number, as well as xylenes used in petrochemical processes and low-sulphur marine fuels (MGO and RMD).
The terminal will also play a key role in the shipment of base oils coming from another, even larger project, with the schedule of which it is closely related – the Hydrocracked Base Oil (HBO) facility being built in Gdańsk, the construction of which began at the end of 2021. Both investments are scheduled to be completed by mid-2025. The heart of the HBO project is the catalytic dewaxing and hydrofining system (DW/HDF), which will consist of several sections: reactor, hydrogen compression and hydrogen gas circulation, light product generation and liquid product distillation. The HBO system in the Gdańsk refinery will enable the production of high-quality oils.
Both the HBO system design and the construction design of the sea transshipment terminal were prepared by specialists from the LOTOS Group. The projects were smoothly taken over thanks to the very good cooperation of the teams of the two merging companies and they are now being continued by PKN ORLEN. The budget of the sea terminal project amounts to over PLN 0.5 billion. Its final implementation – after the increase in the prices of supplies and construction services after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – will be possible thanks to the fact that PKN ORLEN, a strong entity with great investment opportunities, managed to secure the investment funds.
