Būtingė oil terminal () is an

oil terminal An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, and from which these Petroleum product, products are transported to end u ...

near the village of Būtingė in northern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. Planned, designed and implemented by

Fluor Corporation Fluor Corporation is an American engineering and construction firm, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a holding company that provides services through its subsidiaries in three main areas: oil and gas, industrial and infrastructure, government ...

, it is a part of ORLEN Lietuva (formerly ''Mažeikių Nafta''). Būtingė has been in operation since July 1999, and is the first major petroleum project that Lithuania implemented after it attained independence in 1990. The facilities can accommodate crude oil exports of 8 million tons and imports to the extent of 6 to 8 million tons.

Location

The oil terminal is situated in the municipality of

Palanga Palanga (; ; ) is a resort town, resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Palanga is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sand, sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long and up to 300 metres, 10 ...

, on the coast of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, close to the border with

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. It lies near the mouth of the Šventoji River. The project, the first of its kind on this coast, sits on 1,239 hectares on the Baltic Sea coast north of the

port of Klaipėda The Port of Klaipėda () is a seaport located in Klaipėda, Lithuania. It is one of the few ice-free ports in northernmost Europe. It serves as a port of call for cruise ships as well as freight transport. Regular cargo and passenger ferry lines c ...

History

The Resolution on the Approval of the Būtingė Oil Terminal Statue defines the legal framework for the oil terminal. The Būtingė facility was planned, designed and implemented by

. The project was contracted by ORLEN Lietuva for US$300 million. After the EPCM (engineering, procurement, and construction management) part of the project contract was awarded, work started in July 1995 and was completed in July 1999. It became the fastest route for Russian oil exports. In 2001, Būtingė was recorded to be the "fastest growing route for Russian oil export". The terminal is somewhat controversial because of a fear of

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

s, which have occurred. Protests took place in 1999 after an oil spill, and in November 2001 a 60-ton oil spill took place, angering environmentalists. Since July 2006, the Būtingė oil terminal is the only way to supply ORLEN Lietuva with oil, because the Russian partner, state-controlled Lukoil corporation, has cut off the supply through the

Druzhba pipeline The Druzhba pipeline (, ), also referred to as the Friendship Pipeline and the Comecon Pipeline, is one of the world's longest oil pipelines and one of the largest oil pipeline networks in the world. It began operation in 1964 and remains in oper ...

from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In spite of the cutting off of the supply pipeline by Russia and adverse weather conditions, it is reported that the terminal handled unloading of 9 million tons of crude oil during 2010, a 7% rise over the 2009 figures. It is also reported that the terminal is capable of importing nearly 12 million tons of crude oil every year and tankers have capacity of up to 150,000 tons.

Facility

The refinery was planned and designed as a single-point offshore mooring with a capacity to offload up to 4932 m³/h. The mooring is in the form of a floating buoy. There is a pipeline, pumping stations, and an offshore terminal. The facilities are capable of handling 8 million tons of crude oil for exports and 5 to 6 million tons for import. An offshore submarine pipeline measuring in diameter and in length connects to the shore facilities. A pipeline connects to three oil storage tanks which are floating roof tanks for crude oil storage. Pumping stations and a single-point mooring terminal have also been built. Tanks for storing diesel and oil are on the roof. Pumps load crude oil to tankers and transport the same over a distance of to the refinery of ORLEN Lietuva near Mažeikiai.

References

;Bibliography * * *

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butinge oil terminal Oil terminals Klaipėda County Palanga City Municipality Energy in Lithuania 1999 establishments in Lithuania