AB Mazeikiu Nafta has built the FCC Gasoline Hydrotreatment Unit which would allow the Company reducing sulphur content in gasoline five times.

The new 135 million litas worth unit will allow desulphurizing gasoline up to the level which will be required and applicable by the EU from the year 2009.

FCC Gasoline Hydrotreatment Unit involving the process of gasoline selective desulphurization removes sulphur compounds from gasoline at the same time ensuring retention of the main gasoline indicator – octane. Sulphur content in gasoline after the process will be not more than 10 ppm (10 mg/kg). Such requirements will come into force in the EU from the year 2009. The standards currently applicable in the EU establish the target of not more than 50 ppm (ppm – parts per million) sulphur fuel, however stricter requirements are already applied by some countries.

“The important thing is that new modern technologies will allow reducing pollution and grant the possibility for our products to become even more competitive on Lithuanian and foreign markets. We pursue the aim of becoming one of the most modern and advanced refineries in the region. The new unit marks the beginning of modernization, as the amount of investments in AB Mazeikiu Nafta within the coming five years will amount to 1.6 billion US dollars” – told Marek Mroczkowski, General Director of AB Mazeikiu Nafta.

AB Mazeikiu Nafta produces all gasoline grades, jet, diesel fuel and other petroleum products. Gasoline component from the new FCC Gasoline Hydrotreatment Unit will be used for production of gasoline 95 and 98.

AB Mazeikiu Nafta is the largest exporter in Lithuania. The export quantity of petroleum products in the year 2006 amounted to 6.1 million tons, while the revenues from the export sales last year comprised almost 9 billion Litas. Approximately 70 percent of the Company’s products are exported to the United States, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Iceland, and other countries of the Western Europe.