Slovakia's Slovnaft to invest $500 million in developing petchem units

According to media reports, Slovakia’s Slovnaft is planning to make an investment worth $500 million in order to diversify its refinery operations away from fuel production, where demand is expected to decrease, and invest in petrochemical units to produce products such as PP and PE. This is in line with parent company Mol’s 2030 investment strategy to spend $4.5 billion in petrochemical production. Last year, Slovnaft had launched a new LDPE unit with an investment of $323 million.

Slovnaft’s refinery has a throughput of 124,000 barrels/day and the company’s target is to advance its non-fuel production share to 50% from 10-15% at present.

Slovnaft Chief Executive Oszkar Vilagi stated that they forecast that fuel demand will decrease by around 15% by 2030.
Vilagi also noted, "We have to be flexible, process the same amount of oil but make more products out of it such as PP, PE."