A giant reactor being delivered from the Lithuanian port of Klaipėda to an oil refinery in Mažeikiai stuck on a gravel road on Sunday night. It should be back on the road by Monday night, according to Orlen Lietuva, the company that runs the facility.
According to its spokeswoman Kristina Gendvilė, despite a one-day delay, the reactor is expected to arrive in Mažeikiai on August 18, as planned.
“Active work is underway to adjust the delivery timetable to eliminate a stop in Aleksandrija [in Skuodas District] and to ensure that the cargo goes directly in Židikai [in Mažeikiai District] early Wednesday morning, and we will stick to the same schedule from there,” Gendvilė told BNS on Monday. “The project team says tonight they should move along the route they were supposed to follow yesterday.”
The 1,500-ton reactor got stuck on a gravel road a few hundred meters from a rest area in the village of Erlenai on Sunday night, she said. The Erlenai valley was considered the most difficult part of the route because of the high hill and the road on the site of the former peatbog.
Special metal sheets, brought from the sea freight company Bega, had been laid along the edges of the road, Gedvilė said.
“The risk of this happening had been taken into account. [...] That’s why we also have a plan B, so that if the cargo gets stuck somewhere, then slabs are brought from the Bega terminal, forklift trucks are prepared, and the road is secured with metal plates,” Gendvilė added.
The delivery of the massive 1,500-ton reactor to the oil refinery 145 km from the port started early morning on August 6. The 100-metre-long, 6.5-metre-wide and 10-metre-high Italian-made reactor, which will be installed in a deep crude conversion unit, is due to arrive in Mažeikiai after midday on August 18.
Mammoet Baltic is in charge of the delivery that is mainly being done at night, early morning and late evenings.
The reactor will be used for the upgrade of the Mažeikiai facility, which is currently estimated to cost up to 970 million euros. It’s the largest investment project in Lithuania in Orlen’s history since 2006, and it’s expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
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