Croatia's INA Rijeka Refinery Delayed Coking Unit Commissioned

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 21, the new delayed coking unit at the Rijeka Refinery of Croatian oil and gas company INA, located in the northern Adriatic, was put into operation. The unit officially introduced feedstock and started production on September 1, and has since been operating continuously at approximately 70% of design capacity. INA plans to continue gradually increasing throughput and optimizing process parameters, with stable operation expected by the end of 2026, followed by final performance testing and project closeout.

The Rijeka Refinery has a crude oil processing capacity of approximately 90,000 barrels per day. The new delayed coking unit is designed to further convert heavy residues generated during refining into high-value-added products such as diesel, and the main products have currently met the specified quality requirements. Once the project reaches full capacity, diesel output at the refinery is expected to increase by up to approximately 30% at the same crude oil throughput, while also eliminating Croatia's need for imported vacuum gas oil and enhancing the local refining system's deep processing capability for heavy fractions.

The unit is the core component of the Rijeka Refinery upgrade project. The entire modernization project represents an investment of nearly EUR 700 million, making it one of the largest single investments in INA's history. In addition to the delayed coking unit, the scope of work also includes coke handling and marine shipping systems, a sour water stripper unit, an amine regeneration unit, as well as modifications to the existing hydrocracker, sulfur recovery, utilities and offsite facilities, along with supporting construction of coke storage facilities, a new jetty and a large-capacity power transformation system. INA disclosed that more than half of the engineering workload was completed by local Croatian contractors.

The project EPC contract was awarded in December 2019 to KT-Kinetics Technology, a subsidiary of Italy's Maire Tecnimont, under a fixed-price turnkey model, with a contract value of approximately EUR 450 million. The construction of the delayed coking unit and supporting systems involved modifications to more than 60% of the refinery's existing facilities, and is an important part of INA's downstream business restructuring and the Rijeka Refinery's centralized processing strategy.

Since the beginning of this year, the Rijeka Refinery upgrade project has continued to complete key milestones. In February, the project entered the hot commissioning phase; in March, INA announced the completion of the main construction of the upgrade works; in April, the delayed coking unit entered the final commissioning stage; and in July, the entire system achieved mechanical completion and startup activities were advanced. After the new unit entered continuous production in September, the Rijeka Refinery's deep processing capability was further enhanced, and INA is also advancing energy efficiency improvement projects at the site, including a steam back-pressure turbine generator unit.