Hellenic Petroleum SA plans to shut the largest of its three oil refineries in Greece later this year for maintenance, cutting supplies ahead of peak winter demand for heating fuels. Maintenance at the Aspropyrgos refinery will begin in early September, Evangelos Stranis, a company spokesman, said in a telephone interview on April 7.
The full shutdown, which was originally scheduled to take place in the first half, will last about a month, a company official said yesterday, declining to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the work. He didn’t give a reason for the delay.
The Aspropyrgos plant can process 7.5 million metric tons of oil a year, according to the Athens-based company’s website. That’s about 150,000 barrels of oil a day. European refiners tend to conduct maintenance in the spring and autumn ahead of peak demand for gasoline in the summer and rising consumption of heating oil in the winter.
(KATHIMERINI, 04/10/2009)