2007-11-29

Longer than expected maintenance work will have a negative impact on Neste Oil's result

A planned short maintenance turnaround at Neste Oil's new diesel line, commissioned at the Porvoo refinery this summer, has continued longer than expected. The outage began at the end of September. Initially there were problems with contamination of heat exchangers. Following this, over 500 faulty valves were identified and had to be replaced. A leakage found after the restart has further delayed full production. It is now estimated that the line will be in production in the early part of December.

"This extended outage has proved expensive for us, as the margins for diesel fuel have been strong recently. Unfortunately we have also had some other unplanned maintenance work and production issues ongoing at the Porvoo refinery," says President & CEO Risto Rinne.

These problems affecting production at the site will have a significant negative impact on Neste Oil's fourth-quarter result.

Information about the company: Neste Oyj