A milestone should be considered for Larnaca next Tuesday, when the demolition of the Refinery begins in practice. After the award of the offer to a specialized Italian company, the necessary equipment arrived in Cyprus these days, while part of it was secured on the spot.
The first step, which is scheduled to start next Tuesday, January 24, is the start of dismantling of the oil tanks and related equipment. The green light is expected to be given in the next few days by the Environment Service, which has requested, among a series of strict environmental terms and conditions, information on specific conditions before the workshops start working.
According to the schedule, before May the image of the area affects Larnaca and will change it once and for all, after the dismantling of all the metal installations of the refineries will be completed. In recent years, until last year, it was the oil depots of Cyprus and part of the stocks under the management of the Cyprus Petroleum Storage Company (KETAP).
An interesting element is the fact that KETAP will not only not pay any amount to the demolition contractor but will also have revenue, since all materials will be sold as scrap metal.
Respectively in the next stages of dismantling there will be income from similar sales of materials. In total, from the dismantling of the facilities, it is estimated that KETAP will have revenues of approximately € 300.000.
The completion of the process of securing and transferring all the necessary equipment, after the selection of the contractor of the project and the signing of a relevant agreement, was confirmed to "F" by the chairman of the Board. of KETAP, Stelios Georgiadis.
It should be noted that this is the first of three stages of dismantling the facilities and rehabilitation of the area, which requires the largest volume of work. Particularly important is the fact that all pipelines will be dismantled by special procedures, mainly on the sea side. At this stage, both the pipeline networks located in the coastal zone and those in the sea, from which the fuel oil was unloaded during the operation of the refinery and the ready liquid fuels that were later taken over by KETAP, will be dismantled.
As part of the dismantling of the KETAP facilities at this stage, which begins next Tuesday, metal tanks, the pipeline network, pumps and all other equipment will be dismantled. It is also foreseen at this stage the removal of the pipes in the pipeline along the beach as well as the concrete supports. It is also planned to remove the two anchorages and the lashing system.
Additionally, the submarine product unloading pipes, underground gutters, the separator oily wastewater drainage system and the retention tank will be removed.
According to an essential condition set by the Environment Service, all the pipelines along the coast, the pipelines that are in the sea (buried or not), as well as the anchorage must be dismantled.
Buried asbestos since 1991
The next stage will be even more critical, since with the dismantling of tanks and installations, the size and depth of impact of the subsoil will be seen, mainly from the leaks of tanks and pipelines, most of which have been operating there for almost 45 years.
In this regard, very strict conditions of management, controls and tests have been set, in order to determine in their true size the effects, which apparently mainly concern areas where there have been leaks for years, without taking measures in the distant past.
Also extremely sensitive is the issue of excavation and removal of a significant amount of asbestos, which has been buried under storage since 1991. For the removal of asbestos, special provisions have been made both in the environmental study prepared by KETAP and in the conditions set by the Environment service.
Strict measures are also planned for the excavations - some of which will be submarine to remove the pipelines, as there is a risk of leakage of hazardous substances and fuel residues from existing land and submarine installations.
This is how reliability is gained
For those of us who have been dealing with the issue for two decades, as well as for the people of Larnaca, it is certainly impressive that for the first time the schedule for the decommissioning of the refinery facilities is being observed, as approved by the Ministry. in July 2014 following a proposal by the Minister of Energy George Lakotrypis. In 2000, a formal agreement was signed between the President of the Republic, Glafkos Clerides, and the Municipality of Larnaca for the dismantling of the refinery facilities by 2010, in order to accept their upgrade and operation for a short period of time. In 2004 a political decision was taken at the insistence of the then competent minister George Lillikas, not to upgrade and turn it into a storage space under KETAP. The current schedule envisages delivery of the space to Larnaca within 2017.
Source: Liberal