Finland's only oil refinery shuts down for €400 million upgrade

Finland's only oil refinery, the Neste plant in Porvoo, has fully ceased operations for an eight-week planned modernization. The facility, located in the Kilpilahti industrial zone, has an annual capacity of 12 million tons. The cost of the upgrade exceeds €400 million. The phased shutdown began on August 18 and is scheduled to last until the end of October. To complete the maintenance before winter, 7,500 specialists, primarily local contractors, are working around the clock. The Porvoo distribution terminal remains operational. Iiro Harjunkoski, a professor of technological system processes at Aalto University, noted that the two-month downtime serves as a test of national resilience. Experts believe Finland's energy security system can offset the lack of domestic production through fuel imports.