Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) is the largest industrial group in Greece and a leading energy Group in South East Europe. HELPE owns a refinery in Thessaloniki and two near Athens (Aspropyrgos and Elefsina), and one in FYROM (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). HELPE has fuel marketing operations in Greece where it operates a retail network of over 2,300 service stations as well as 8 South Eastern European countries. Besides refining and marketing activities, HELPE is the largest petrochemicals producer and marketer in Greece and participates in the gas and power sectors through its affiliates DEPA (Greek gas supply, transmission and distribution group) and Elpedison (a power generation and marketing joint venture with Edison SpA).
Greece's largest refiner is modernizing its Elefsis refinery by means of an upgrade with a 40,000 barrels-per-day hydrocracker and a 20,000 bpd coker, increasing production capacity as part of a sustainable development of zero sulphur diesel and reduction of emissions. The hydrocracker and coker at the 100,000 bpd refinery is scheduled to start in 2011. Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain) and Asprofos (Greece) are the EPC’s on the project.
Van Leeuwen Buizen Zwijndrecht has been awarded with the contract for the delivery, receipt and distribution of 18,000 tons of Carbon, Alloy, Stainless, Nickel Alloy and Duplex PFF material. The so-called “integrated supply” contract, to be executed in close cooperation with aforementioned EPC’s and HelPe, includes local “on-site” warehousing close to Elefsis refinery in Elefsina.
Elefsina is an industrialised town about 20 km from Athens, known for having been the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, one of the most famous religious centers of ancient Greece.
The project is being managed by a dedicated team at Van Leeuwen Buizen in The Netherlands and in Elefsina a special task force is appointed under supervision of an operations manager. In Elefsina, Van Leeuwen Buizen operates a temporary warehouse to receive the PFF material for further distribution to ERUP contractors during the course of this project.