OREANDA-NEWS. January 12, 2011. 9 million tons of crude oil was unloaded in Butinge Oil Terminal owned by oil refining company ORLEN Lietuva during last year, which is 7 percent more than in 2009. Number of ships serviced during the same period increased by almost 7 percent – from 84 to 90. It was one of the best years in the Terminal history of feedstock import.   

Since 2006, after termination of the supply of crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline, ORLEN Lietuva is transporting the feedstock by tankers. But often unloading of crude oil is aggravated by adverse weather conditions that are preventing ships from berthing to the buoy located in the Baltic Sea.  

„Despite the fact that due to adverse weather conditions tankers last year were on demmurage for 525 hours (in 2009 – for 241 hours), this did not prevent from unloading of greater quantity of crude oil and servicing more tankers“, - said Linas Bauzys, Director of Pipelines and Offshore Terminals of ORLEN Lietuva. He also reminded that on 25 of August a 10-meter-high wave was recorded offshore by the buoy; wind speed at that point reached nearly 30 m/s. 

Last year for the first time condition of the bottoms of two Butinge tanks was tested by the external method of acoustic emission. This allowed to extend operation lifetime of the tanks and to save approximately 1.5 million LTL per year. Previously, tanks would be cleaned and acoustic measuring would be performed internaly. In the future the new practice will be applied not only in Butinge but also in ORLEN Lietuva refinery in Mazeikiai. „For this reason, testing of the tank would last one day, not 2-3 months. It is also very important that there is no need to empty the tank”, - added L. Bauzys. 

In May, the 700th tanker was serviced in the Terminal. It was the tanker that delivered over 104,000 tons of crude oil from the terminal in Russia. 

Butinge Oil Terminal, erected in 1999, is connected to ORLEN Lietuva refinery in Mazeikiai by a 91.5 km crude oil pipeline. The Terminal is able to import up to 12 million tons of crude oil a year. Tankers of capacity up to 150,000 tons can be services at Butinge.