The Government of Finland has declared a state of emergency in Finland due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The Government has decided on measures to slow down the spreading of the pandemic. These measures have been enforced in accordance with the Emergency Powers Act, the Communicable Diseases Act and other relevant legislation.

Similar measures and restrictions have been extensively taken into use also abroad. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the related exceptional and extensive measures, the implementation of the major turnaround 2020 of the Porvoo refinery as originally planned is prevented and delayed.

In this exceptional situation, the company’s primary objective is to ensure the health and safety of its employees, customers, contractors and their subcontractors and other external partners as well as to ensure the continuity of its refinery operations and secure supply of products to its customers.

For the above-mentioned reasons that are beyond Neste’s control, the turnaround will need to be executed in phases. Based on the current estimate, only the most business critical maintenance works and regulatory inspections can be executed in April – June 2020, instead of the planned major turnaround. Regarding the rest of the maintenance works and investments, the planning of the turnaround will be restarted. The new execution schedule will be defined by the end of the third quarter of 2020.

Previously, the company estimated the negative impact of the original scope of the major turnaround to be EUR 220 million on the company’s comparable operating profit for 2020.

The estimated negative impact of the first phase of the turnaround is approximately EUR 85 million on the company’s comparable operating profit mainly in the second quarter 2020 bearing in mind, however, that the current business environment is exceptional and creates uncertainty. The rest of the turnaround works are expected to be finalised in 2021 and their related negative impact on the company’s comparable operating profit will be estimated in February 2021, at the latest.