OREANDA-NEWS. April 05, 2012. One of the largest crawler cranes in East Europe has been delivered to ORLEN Lietuva refinery.  Modernization of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit will require lifting of a 160-ton structure to the height of 65 meters. This is one of the most important tasks connected with the refinery Turnaround (T/A) that will commence at the end of April, reported the press-centre of ORLEN Lietuva Refinery.

The crawler crane Demag CC-2800 owned by the Polish company Herkules was transported to ORLEN Lietuva refinery located in Mazeikiai using 30 trucks. Lifting capacity of the crane is 600 t, boom length – 128 meters.  It will be used to lift the 160-ton and 8-meter in diameter FCC reactor head with cyclones to the height of 65 meters. Lifting activity will take about 12 hours. 

“FCC modernization is one of the biggest T/A tasks. Our continuous investments into modernization of the Refinery and those related to the increase of light products yield will ensure more efficient crude refining and safe operation in future,” said Ireneusz Fafara, General Director of ORLEN Lietuva.

Installation of the new equipment and assembly of the crane are the most important preparatory activities before T/A that starts at the end of April. The Refinery will be completely shut down for 35 days.

The reactor head and other cylinder elements will be prepared for mounting during the T/A when internal parts of the reactor in FCC unit will be replaced. The above works will be performed by Naftoremont, a member of the Polimex-Mostostal group (Poland). 

Naftoremont Work Group calculates that 35-38 workers will be involved in preparatory works; 160 persons will perform works during T/A, including piping erection. 

100 per cent of the shares in ORLEN Lietuva are owned by the Polish PKN ORLEN. The largest company in Middle and Eastern Europe by revenue has invested 1.9 billion LTL in Lithuania since the acquisition of the Mazeikiai-based refiner.