Galp to invest €45.2m in Sines refinery until 2023, to boost eco-efficiency

Portuguese energy group Galp expects to invest €45.2 million in its refinery at Sines between now and 2023, with the aim of making it one of the most efficient in Europe in environmental and energy use terms, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Between 2013 and 2017 the company invested some €42.5 million in infrastructure in the field of eco-efficiency.

Over the refinery’s 40 years of operations, €4 billion have been invested in it.

The plant was recently subject to “programmed maintenance [and] interventions in more than 450 [pieces of] equipment” including the installation of a catalyst cooler, which makes it possible to treat heavier raw material, “so increasing the flexibility of the refiner apparatus,” Galp said. As a result, the refinery will produce “more energy, which will be used internally, contributing to the reduction of the carbon footprint.”

The work took 54 days and involved more than 2,000 people and “a hundred companies, 60 of which are Portuguese, involving an overall investment of 58 million euros,” the company said Galp. Part of this investment, which the company did break out, is included in the €45.2 million figure for investment to 2023.

Galp’s CEO, Carlos Gomes da Silva, was quoted in the statement as saying that the Sines refinery is “central” to the group’s strategy, hence the installation of “cutting-edge technology and equipment” for greater energy efficiency.

The Sines refinery is Portugal’s biggest single exporter, Galp recalled, with “about 45% of its production” being sold abroad. It directly employs 527 workers, with another 500 people working for companies serving it, and indirectly sustains a further 2,500 jobs.

LUSA