The state-owned oil, gas and chemical company is preparing for a longer repair time and is currently working on an alternative supply system, CEO Alfred Stern told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Thanks to a smaller system, however, production does not stand completely still.
When the main distillation plant, which was severely damaged during a pressure test at the end of a general overhaul and could not be put into operation, can be started up again to full capacity, is not yet foreseeable. The total daily capacity of the plant typically averages 200,000 barrels (23.47 million liters) per day.
“Several weeks anyway”
The repair will “in any case” take several weeks to complete. “We don’t have a definitive inventory yet,” Stern said. The OMV boss hopes to have more clarity over the course of the next week. A large team, a three-digit number of people, is currently working on checking the system, which consists of a 40-meter-high tower with a diameter of 8.5 meters. At the same time, the group is working on setting up an alternative supply system. “At least for June we have secured the supply situation,” said Stern. As a precautionary measure, the nearby airport in Vienna, which is supplied by OMV, was also informed about the bottlenecks in kerosene. The airlines, including Austrian Airlines, which belongs to Lufthansa, were asked to refuel before returning to Austria “to reduce demand and ease the situation,” said Stern.
In addition to the reserves of diesel and petrol released by Austria, attempts are being made to obtain products from the two refineries belonging to the group in Burghausen in Germany and Petrobrazi in Romania. “The refinery has been idle since April 19 for the general overhaul. During this time, you live off the stocks and they were pretty much empty by then, so it was necessary to actually use some of the reserves,” Stern said. At the moment they are also looking at whether products can be imported via Trieste or Koper in Slovenia.
The manager has not yet been able to provide information on the amount of damage. However, the costs would be partially covered by insurance, “so that the financial damage will be limited”.
Source: Nachrichten
