Lithuania’s prime minister, Inga Ruginienė, has said she expects Orlen Lithuania to keep its modernisation of the Mažeikiai refinery on track, finishing the project by autumn 2026, despite the company’s decision to terminate a contract worth nearly €1 billion with UK-based Petrofac.
“This is a strategic project, and our key objective is to ensure that work continues smoothly,” Ruginienė told reporters. “We know Orlen Lithuania has already begun the search for a new main contractor, and we expect this process to move quickly to ensure continuity and meet the deadlines.”
She added that state institutions would continue to work closely with Orlen Lithuania and with Lithuanian subcontractors to ensure the modernisation is completed successfully.
As reported earlier, Orlen Lithuania ended its contract with Petrofac over persistent delays and repeated failures to meet agreed deadlines for the construction of a residue hydrocracking unit.
The company says around 80 percent of the work has already been completed and that the process of selecting a replacement contractor is under way.
Sources told BNS that Petrofac’s subcontractors – mostly Lithuanian firms – were ordered to halt work last Friday. Subcontractors have said Petrofac had been late with payments throughout the project and stopped paying altogether after an administrator was appointed in late October.
Orlen Lithuania has said it is considering ways to settle outstanding debts owed to Lithuanian subcontractors, stressing that it is doing “everything possible” to keep the strategically important project on course.
The BBC reported in late October that Petrofac filed for administration after Dutch grid operator TenneT terminated a major offshore wind contract in the North Sea, derailing the firm’s financial restructuring plans.
Orlen Lithuania signed a €641 million contract with Petrofac in October 2021, later revising the project’s total cost upwards by 45 percent to around €970 million. In March, the Lithuanian government designated the modernisation as a project of strategic importance and signed a letter of intent on state support.
The completion date has since been pushed back to September 2026, a year later than originally planned. Once finished, Orlen Lithuania says the refinery will process 15–20 percent less crude, while maintaining the same output of finished products.
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