The IES refinery in Mantua, Lombardy is situated in the Frassino Industrial Estate on the outer edge of the town towards the south east. The facility is located on a site which is 525,000m² and has a capacity of 2,600,000t of crude oil a year.
The refinery is configured to produce intermediate distillates (gas oil) and also several different grades of bitumen (for use in road construction and other industrial markets).
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Although the refinery is biased to produce certain products it still produces the full range of road fuels (95 and 98 octane gasoline) and also several grades of diesel oil and also heating oil (kerosene and gasoil).
The crude feedstock for the refinery is obtained from oil-producing regions that are close in proximity to the Mediterranean to minimise the transport distances. Crude oil thus comes from several sources such as Syria, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Russia and also Iraq. The crude is transported by tankers of around 80,000t that are discharged at the IES coastal terminal at Porto Marghera.
The IES facility is linked to the Agip Petroli reception and storage depot. The oil is transferred to the refinery via a 120km pipeline which is wholly owned by IES.
ITALIANA ENERGIA SERVIZI (IES)
IES was first set up in 1994 when the Mantua refinery was bought out from Cameli. The new company changed the name of the company from Cameli Petroli to IES. The company was in private hands controlled by Mario Contini (62%), Adolfo Vannucci (19%) and Societe Generale (19%) (a French bank European investment fund).
The refinery supplies fuel products via its own distribution system to the Lombardy region of Italy. In July 2007 the Hungarian company MOL acquired the IES refinery and the fuel distribution arm of the company.
MANTUA REFINERY UPGRADE
In August 2007, not long after the refinery passed into new ownership, Foster Wheeler (FW) Italiana (based in Milan) were asked to modernise aspects of the refinery.
FW was awarded the contract for engineering, procurement and construction as well as supervision of a project to bring the refinery into compliance with new European ultra-low sulphur specifications for automotive diesel.
The project will also modify the refinery to produce fewer emissions that are discharged into the environment. It was awarded under a three-year general framework agreement for EPC and construction supervision services that had been previously agreed and signed with IES in 2006. The contract will include the fabrication and installation of a new gasoil hydrodesulphurisation unit with sulphur recovery and amine washing capabilities.
There will also be new flare capabilities with scrubber to reduce emissions and update of other smaller utilities on the site. The project will also see the upgrade of the existing distillate catalytic desulphurisation unit that was previously refurbished by Prometheus in 2000. In addition FW will upgrade the mild hydrocracking unit and also the electrical and process control systems at the refinery.
