Aleksei Kovalenko is the new director of the PETROTEL-LUKOIL refinery, starting with December 1, replacing Andrey Bogdanov. In his first public appearance at an event in Ploiesti, Kovalenko announced that his main objective, in line with the concerns of all refineries in Europe, would be to reduce operational costs by optimizing technological processes. At the same time, the company will invest around $ 131 million between 2019 and 2021, mainly in two projects that will have a positive impact on the environment:

upgrading the coking plant to reduce process emissions to zero

the construction of a new sulfur recovery complex to allow a reduction to practically zero of accidental sulfur oxides emissions in case of technical incidents or damages

Among PETROTEL’s objectives for the next years are the reduction of energy consumption, the elimination of leaks, the replacement of dynamic equipment with new high efficiency equipment, the introduction of electric trace cables, the energy integration of technological processes.

At the age of 51, Kovalenko has a 26-year experience in industry and since 2006 has led two more refineries in the LUKOIL group, Odessa (for 5 years) and Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (for 7 years) in Kstovo, 410 kilometers East of Moscow.

The refinery in Ploiesti, part of the Russian group LUKOIL, had a turnover of about 4.7 billion lei in 2017 and a net profit of 224 million lei.