Germany’s Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein GmbH (MiRO) Refinery, one of the largest oil processing facilities, has announced unplanned maintenance on one of its three crude oil processing units. As per estimates, the unplanned maintenance will take close to 4 weeks, and the unit will come online in late January or early February 2023.

Meanwhile, the refinery has increased the throughput of the two other crude-processing units to maintain the production of the Distillates and Gasolines.

Refinery’s press office has reported that a technical fault in a furnace has forced this unplanned maintenance in the unit.

“As a contract processing refinery for four shareholder companies, we do not publish any details on capacities, product quantities, or other details for antitrust reasons. The sale of the products made by MiRO is the exclusive responsibility of our shareholders”, said MiRO.

Increased throughput in the other two units is expected to cover for the drop in crude oil processing in the refinery; however, actual numbers remained discretionary to the four shareholders. Meanwhile, the refinery has reported that decommissioning has been done in a controlled manner, and repair work has been going according to the plan.

MiRO refinery is the joint venture of Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Rosneft PJSC, and Phillips 66 and is located on the Rhine River in Southwest Germany. Shell Plc has the largest share with 32.25%, closely followed by ExxonMobil at 25% & Rosneft at 24%, and Phillips has an 18.25% share in the refinery.

The shareholders provide Crude Oil and other feedstocks to the refinery according to their proportional share in the refinery. The refinery receives Crude Oil mainly from Eastern Europe or Central Asia and Africa via the South European Pipeline (SPSE), Marseille (France), and Transalpine Ölleitung GmbH (TAL), Trieste (Italy).

Phillips 66, a key shareholder, uses the Trieste pipeline to deliver medium sweet and sour crude oils to the refinery. Distillates and Gasolines post-refining include petrochemical feedstocks (Propane, Butane, Naphtha, and others), home heating oil, bitumen and anode, and fuel-grade petroleum coke. Phillips 66 majorly caters to the demand for refining products in Southwest Germany, Northern Switzerland, and Western Austria via truck, railcar, and barge.